The Triwizard Tournament
by cleotheo
Summary: Twenty years after the war and Hogwarts is hosting the Triwizard Tournament. As the tournament begins Harry is surprised and pleased to discover that his old friend Hermione will be present at the tournament. What's not as welcome to Harry is the identity of one of the rival champions,Scorpius Malfoy,and his blossoming friendships with his children.
1. The Triwizard Tournament

**A/N - This story is also about Scorpius as well as Draco and Hermione so there will be places where neither of them will be present. I hope people still enjoy the story even though there is other elements than Dramione.**

**This story is already written so I will likely be posting a new chapter each day.**

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The noise in The Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was ear splitting. It was the first night back at school after the summer holidays and old friends were catching up with each other while new friendships were being forged by the freshly sorted first years.

Clearing his throat the headmaster of Hogwarts, Harry Potter, stood up and called the room to order. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. Before we begin the wonderful feast, I have an announcement to make. This year Hogwarts has the prestigious honour of hosting The Triwizard Tournament."

Ripples of noise broke through the Great Hall as students whispered amongst themselves. It was a well-known fact that Professor Potter had himself competed in the tournament while he was at school.

"As usual, another two schools will be participating in the tournament alongside Hogwarts. As we will be playing hosts to students of the two schools and their headmasters, I want everyone to be on their best behaviour. We are going to show the wizarding world that Hogwarts is the premiere wizarding school in Europe." Harry's words led to cheers and yells throughout the hall, his students were extremely loyal to the school and it's legacy.

Harry smiled at the response and once again called for silence. "First of all I would like to welcome, Professor Polanski and the students from Durmstrang institute."

The doors to The Great Hall burst open and a severe looking man in his mid-fifties entered the room. Behind him came six male students all dressed in the wintery looking uniform of Durmstrang. Harry noticed that there was no big production as they entered the room, unlike when he was at school.

Harry greeted Professor Polanski and showed him to one of the two empty seats beside his own chair at the Professor's table. While Professor Polanski took his seat, his students headed to the Ravenclaw table and sat down. Harry was slightly unnerved by this, he had made room at the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables. He had expected that the Durmstrang students would sit with the Slytherins, he hoped the Beauxbatons students didn't mind consorting with Slytherins.

Before he introduced the next school, he needed to double check the headmistresses name. During all the preliminary organisation of the tournament he had been dealing with the deputy head of Beauxbatons. Checking the name, Harry stood stunned. It couldn't be her, it had to be a coincidence.

When Harry didn't move or speak for several minutes Neville Longbottom, the Herbology Professor, cleared his throat gaining Harry's attention. Harry turned and flashed his friend a small smile before he turned back to face the students who were anxiously awaiting the next arrivals.

"Now I would like to welcome Madame Granger and the students from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic." Harry said, finding his voice.

Harry waited with baited breath as the doors opened and the contingent from Beauxbatons entered the room. The group of six students, four boys and two girls, were led by an elegant looking witch in her late thirties. Harry was left in little doubt that the witch was his old friend Hermione Granger.

"Hello, Harry." Hermione said, coming to a stop in front of Harry.

"Hello." Harry smiled, pleased to see his friend.

Remembering he didn't have time for a reunion at the minute, Harry directed Hermione to her seat and her students towards the Slytherin table. Once everyone was seated, Harry stepped up to his podium and began to address the room.

"There are some rules in place for the tournament. Each school will be represented by one champion. Anyone who wishes to put their name forward can enter it in The Goblet of Fire." Harry swept his hand to the side and the magical goblet appeared. "The Goblet will be placed in the entrance hall from tomorrow, you have one week to enter your name. No-one under the age of sixteen is permitted to enter the competition."

Loud chattering and grumbling broke out among the students but Harry soon regained order. "The age limit is there to protect students. I know from bitter experience how hard and gruelling the tournament is. I must warn you, only enter if you are sure you can handle the pressure. Once your name is in the Goblet, you cannot change your mind." Harry let his solemn words sink in before speaking again. "Now it's time to eat. Enjoy!"

As the food appeared on the tables, Harry headed back to his seat at the Professor's table. He had been hoping to talk to Hermione but when he arrived at his seat he noticed she was talking to Neville, who was sitting on the other side of her. As Harry waited for Hermione to finish with Neville, he thought back to the last time he had seen his friend, nearly twenty years ago.

...

"_You don't have to do this, Hermione." Harry said, as he watched his friend pack her bag._

_Since Voldemort's downfall three months ago both Harry and Hermione had been staying at The Burrow with The Weasley family. Harry was staying there because he no longer had a home with The Dursley's and The Weasley's considered him a part of the family. Hermione was at The Burrow because her parents were in Australia with no memory of ever having a daughter. Kingsley had tried to reverse the memory charm that Hermione had cast a year ago but had had no success, so Hermione's parents were currently living under their new identities._

"_I do. We both know I can't stay now." Hermione said sadly. She had just broken up with the other third of their trio, Ron Weasley._

"_Is it really that bad?" Harry asked. "Can't you work it out?"_

"_No, Harry. Me and Ron want different things." Hermione sighed, sitting on the edge of the bed. "He wants to settle down, get married and have children."_

"_Don't you want to get married and have children?" Harry asked, sitting next to Hermione._

"_Yes someday. But not now. Me and Ron have only been dating for three months and he's already got our entire future mapped out."_

"_Is it the fact he's got your future mapped out, or the fact you don't really want to be with Ron that's causing the problems?" Harry asked. He hadn't failed to notice how much his two best friends had been fighting since their romance began._

"_Both." Hermione admitted._

"_But it doesn't mean you have to leave." Harry said, watching as Hermione re-started her packing._

"_It does. We both know things will be bad between me and Ron, this relationship has destroyed our friendship." Hermione said, putting the last of her clothes in her bag._

"_It doesn't mean ours is ruined though." Harry said, determined to keep his friend._

"_I know. I'm just making it easier for you." Hermione said. "Ron's your best friend, Ginny's your girlfriend and The Weasley's are practically your family. This way you're not put in the awkward situation of having to choose between us."_

"_Why would I have to choose?" Harry asked sadly. He asked the question even though he knew that the entire Weasley family would take Ron's side in the break up and Hermione would no longer be considered part of the family._

"_You know you'd have to choose eventually. This way you don't have to." Hermione smiled sadly at her friend._

"_Where will you go?" Harry asked, standing up and helping Hermione pack the last of her books._

"_France. I spoke to Kingsley and he's arranged for me to redo my final year at Beauxbatons. I can then start my teacher training in France." Hermione said. _

"_I'll miss you." Harry said. "You've been a massive part of my life since I was eleven."_

"_I'll miss you too." Hermione said, pulling Harry into a hug._

"_What will I do without you?" Harry asked, burying his face in Hermione's thick hair._

"_You'll be fine." Hermione said, trying not to cry. _

_Hermione and Harry hugged for several more minutes before separating. Hermione picked up her large bag and shrunk it to a more manageable size. _

"_Bye Harry." Hermione sniffed. The tears were streaming down her face as she realised she might not see her friend again. "Be happy."_

"_Bye, Hermione." Harry was also crying at the thought of losing Hermione. _

_With one final hug, Hermione turned on the spot and apparated away, leaving Harry alone in The Burrow._

_..._

"Harry." The familiar sound of Hermione's voice brought Harry out of his thoughts.

Harry's eyes drifted to the small feminine hand, belonging to Hermione, that was placed gently on his right arm. Harry was surprised to see Hermione was wearing both a wedding and an engagement ring. He had assumed she was unmarried when she was still using the name Granger.

"Are you alright, you look in a world of your own." Hermione said to her old friend.

"Sorry. I was just thinking about the past." Harry said.

"I've been doing a lot of that lately, knowing I would be coming here and seeing you." Hermione admitted.

"Is it a bad thing seeing me?" Harry asked.

Hermione smiled and shook her head. "No, it's a good thing. I've missed you."

"I've missed you too." Harry said, smiling at his old friend. "I've often wondered if you were happy."

"I am." Hermione said. "Are you?"

"Yes. Me and Gin got married and we now have three kids. Two boys and a girl. How about you?" Harry asked.

"I'm married and we've got two children. A boy and a girl." Hermione said, smiling slightly at the thought of her family.

"Why do you still use the name Granger if you're married?" Harry asked.

"I only use it professionally." Hermione shrugged. "Besides it stops the children getting embarrassed that their mother is the headmistress."

Harry nodded, it wasn't the first time he had wondered if his own children got embarrassed by having him as a constant presence in their school lives.

"So how did you end up teaching? When I left you were heading into the Auror training programme." Hermione said, before Harry got a chance to say more on the subject of Hermione's marriage.

"I was an Auror for eight years. But I had an accident during a raid and was hurt. It wasn't anything too serious, but it got me thinking about my family and what would happen to Ginny and the children if anything had happened to me." Harry explained. "Professor McGonagall had asked me a couple of times about teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts. So I talked it through with Gin and accepted her offer."

"How long have you been headmaster?" Hermione asked.

"I took over when Minerva retired four years ago." As he was speaking Harry glanced around the room and realised that the feast was starting to draw to a close. Most of the students had finished eating and were just sitting around talking amongst themselves.

Disappointed to be interrupted Harry apologised to Hermione before he stood up and officially ended the feast, dismissing the four houses. Once all the students from Hogwarts had exited the room, Harry turned to the two other heads of the visiting schools.

"Are you sure you don't wish for rooms in the school, Professor Polanski?" Harry asked the severe looking man standing beside him.

"No thank you. Our ship has adequate sleeping facilities." Professor Polanski said, gathering his students around him. "We will see you in the morning, Professor Potter. Madame Granger." Professor Polanski nodded to the two and swept out of The Great Hall, his students trailing behind him.

"I'll show you to your rooms." Harry said to Hermione who nodded and smiled politely at him.

Harry led Hermione and her students to the third floor, at the end of the corridor he came to a large oak door. Saying the password, Unicorn, Harry led the group into a large common room. The room had numerous sofas and chairs in the colours of all four Hogwarts houses and several desks to study on.

"There's three rooms through the door on the right for the students." Harry explained to Hermione, pointing to the relevant places. "And the door on the left leads to your quarters."

"Thank you Harry." Hermione said, looking around the large room.

For the first time since they arrived, Harry took the time to look at the students with Hermione as they examined their new living quarters. The two girls in the group were giggling quietly to themselves while the four boys were standing next to the fire.

A familiar flash of platinum blond hair by the fire had Harry taking a second look at the group of boys. One of the taller boys in the group had very familiar white blond hair, a pale complexion and piercing grey eyes. If Harry hadn't know better, he would have sworn that Draco Malfoy was standing in the room. Obviously the boy was the next best thing, Malfoy's son.

"You six go and sort out your rooms. And no fighting." Hermione said to her students before Harry had a chance to ask about the mysterious boy who was clearly a Malfoy.

When the six students had left the room, Hermione politely told Harry she was tired and wanted to rest. Harry hurriedly agreed and left Hermione and her students alone for the night.

After Harry had left, Hermione headed to the door that led to her own quarters. The room was a nice combination of living room and bedroom, meaning she could retire to her room to relax instead of having to stay in the main common room with her students.

Hermione spotted her luggage and decided to unpack her belongings. She was nearly finished when a knock on her door interrupted her. Hermione had a pretty good idea which of her students was knocking on the door. Sure enough when she opened it she found a tall blond boy with grey eyes standing on the other side.

"Come in." Hermione said, holding the door open.

"Nice room." The boy said, flinging himself onto the sofa.

"Get your feet off the furniture, Scorp." Hermione scolded, batting at the young boy's feet.

"Sorry, Mum." He said, placing his feet on the floor and sitting up properly.

"Did you want something?" Hermione asked her son.

"Not really. I just wanted to make sure you're alright." Scorpius shrugged.

"Why wouldn't I be alright?" Hermione asked, puzzled.

"Dad was just worried that because you hadn't seen Potter for a while there might be trouble." Scorpius admitted.

"Your dad worries too much." Hermione chuckled, sitting next to her son. "There was no trouble."

"You didn't tell him did you?" Scorp asked, his face twisting into the smirk his father was noted for.

"No I didn't. We all decided it was best that no-one knows about our familiar connection until either after the tournament or the champion has been picked." Hermione said.

"After the tournament. I'll be picked for Beauxbatons champion." Scorp grinned cockily.

Hermione shook her head, sometimes her son was a carbon copy of her husband when he was younger. "Don't be so cocky. If you're picked as champion, then we don't tell anyone I'm your mother. That way I can't be accused of being bias."

"No one who knows you would ever accuse you of that. You never give either me or Lyra special treatment at school." Scorpius said.

"It's still better if we don't give them a chance." Hermione told her son. "So keep quiet until either next week or the end of the tournament."

"I'll keep quiet, don't worry." Scorpius said. "But what about dad. If I'm picked as champion he'll be coming over to support me. I'm not sure he can pass up an opportunity to annoy Potter."

"That's Professor Potter to you." Hermione scolded causing her son to roll his eyes. "And don't worry about your dad, I can keep him in line."

Scorpius grimaced at the smirk Hermione wore when she mentioned keeping his father in line, he really didn't need to think about his parents in that way. Over the years he had been embarrassed on more than one occasion by their public displays of affection and his father's innuendo's.

"I think it's time I went to bed." Scorpius said, standing up. "Night, mum."

"Night, Scorp." Hermione gave her son a kiss on the cheek, before he exited the room.

Once she was alone again, Hermione headed over to the fireplace and grabbed a handful of floo powder. The fireplace wasn't connected to the floo network for travelling but could be used to make floo calls. It was something Hermione had requested when the arrangements for accommodation were made. It was necessary for her to be able to speak to her husband daily and to check up on their daughter.

Settling down by the fire, Hermione threw the floo powder into the flames. "Malfoy Chateau." She called out, before sticking her head into the fireplace to converse with her husband.


	2. The Choosing of the Champions

A week after the announcement of the Tournament, The Great Hall was packed with students and teachers anxiously awaiting the choosing of the three champions. The Goblet of Fire had been moved and was now standing at the top of The Great Hall. The three heads of the schools were standing waiting for their champions to be chosen.

As Harry stepped up to the podium, silence descended on The Great Hall. For the past week rumours had been rife regarding which Hogwarts students had put their names forward. There was no rumours surrounding the other two schools as all six students from each school had specifically come to enter the tournament.

"It is now time to choose the champions." Harry announced. "When it is ready the Goblet of Fire will release the name of the chosen student."

The whole room watched the Goblet, suddenly the colour of the flame changed and a piece of parchment was expelled into the air. The parchment fluttered into Harry's hand where he then opened it up to read.

"The champion for Durmstrang is Novak Kostas." Harry announced.

A small dark haired boy made his way from the Durmstrang contingent to the front of the hall. The Durmstrang students were clapping and cheering loudly while the rest of the room politely applauded. When the boy arrived at the front, Professor Polanski pointed him in the direction of the champions room. It was the same small ante chamber, set off the Great Hall that had been used when Harry had participated in the tournament years ago.

A few minutes after Novak Kostas had exited the room, the Goblet's flames changed colour and spat out the name of the second champion.

Harry opened the parchment and announced the next champion. "The champion for Beauxbatons is Scorpius Malfoy."

Harry watched as the blond boy strutted to the front of the room amid cheers from his fellow students. Harry was still amazed by the boy's similarities to his father, he could never be mistaken as anyone other than Draco Malfoy's son. Harry hadn't had a chance to speak to Hermione about the boy but the day after his arrival Harry had overheard one of his friends calling him by his surname, confirming his already positive conclusion of the boy's heritage.

Arriving at the front of the hall Scorpius gave his mother the famous Malfoy smirk as if saying I told you so to the witch. Hermione pointed her son in the direction of the ante chamber, trying not to worry too much about his safety in the upcoming tournament.

Turning her attention back to the Goblet, Hermione waited with the rest of the room to find out the final champion. They didn't have to wait long as after a few seconds the Goblet spat out the third and final champion.

Harry eagerly grabbed hold of the parchment, wanting to see who was his school's champion. Opening the parchment, Harry stared in shock for a few seconds before composing himself.

"The third and final champion representing Hogwarts is Albus Potter." Harry read to rapturous applause.

Harry watched as his second child made his way to the front of the hall, regularly getting stopped by people wishing him luck and shaking his hand. Not for the first time since discussions began regarding the age of champion's participating in the contest, Harry regretted not fighting to keep the seventeen years old age limit. If Harry thought for one second his son would enter the contest he would have fought harder against lowering the participating age.

When Albus arrived at the front of the room, Harry had little choice but to congratulate his son and direct him to the champions room. After seeing his son off to the ante chamber, Harry turned and addressed the crowd one final time.

"The Triwizard Tournament has begun. The first task will take place in three weeks' time. Further announcements will be made in due course, but for now it's time for you all to return to your common rooms."

As the Professors were herding the students back to their houses, Harry led the other two heads into the ante chamber. Arriving in the room they found all three students gathered around the fire. Harry was slightly disturbed to see Albus chatting merrily away to the Malfoy boy.

"The head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Ms Padma Patil, will be arriving shortly to explain all the rules." Harry addressed the room. "She will be head of the judging panel for the tasks."

While they waited for Padma to arrive, each head took their own student aside to talk to them. While Professor Polanski and his student, Novak, were relatively silent the other two pairs had plenty to say to each other.

Harry immediately started lecturing Albus about the serious consequences of his actions. Albus was determined he had done the right thing and was unrepentant until Harry pointed out that he would have to tell his mother what he had done. The thought of an angry Ginny Potter was enough to make the young Gryffindor question the wisdom of his decision.

The conversation between Hermione and Scorpius was quite different from the one Harry was having with his offspring. Obviously Hermione had been aware that her son's name was in the Goblet of Fire and there was a real possibility he would be picked as a champion. The only thing Scorpius was bothered about was telling his father he had been picked for Beauxbatons champion. Hermione had agreed he could owl Draco as soon as they were finished with the meeting.

Nearly five minutes after they had entered the room, Padma finally arrived apologising for her lateness.

"We best get straight on with things. I'm sure you're all busy people." Padma began, smiling at the group of people assembled in the room. Hermione's presence wasn't a surprise as Padma had dealt with her numerous times over the course of the last few years. "As you know there are three tasks to be undertaken. In the first two, points will be rewarded according to how well you perform in the task. Those points will work out whether you will be at an advantage or disadvantage starting the final task. I take it you all fully understand what you have signed up for."

Padma checked with each of the three champion's that they fully understood the magnitude of the contest in which they were entered. Satisfied they all were, she continued.

"Each task will take place during the weekend so the whole school can observe if they wish to do so." Padma said. "Also family members who wish to support you during the tasks are most welcome. Does anyone have any questions?"

"I do." Scorpius said. "How many family members can come and support you?" Hermione had a sneaky suspicion where her son was headed with his question. While he might not attend Hogwarts and be in Slytherin, there was no denying he had a very devious side to his nature and was a true Slytherin at heart.

"As many as you wish. You can bring your entire family if you want. We want the champions to feel well supported and as comfortable and confident as possible." Padma replied.

"Thank you." Scorpius thanked Padma, a smirk playing around his lips.

Hermione was fairly confident her son would now invite his grandparents to at least one task, causing god knows how much chaos. Hermione was unsure of how Harry would react to having Lucius Malfoy in his school. While her father-in-law had spent a few years in Azkaban after the war and had changed a lot, he was still a fairly disagreeable man.

"Does anyone else have any more questions?" Padma asked, the whole room shook their heads. "Well I'll be off then. Harry I'll be in contact next week regarding the first task."

"Fine. I'll walk you out." Harry said. "Albus you may go now." He said turning to his son before he left the room with Padma.

Albus followed his father out of the room as did Professor Polanski and Novak, leaving Hermione and Scorpius alone.

"Is it alright if I go and write to dad now?" Scorpius asked, eager to inform his father of his achievement.

"Yes." Hermione smiled at her son's eagerness to inform Draco of what had happened today. The pair were very close and Scorpius admired his father greatly. "Do you need help finding the owlrey?"

"No." Scorpius shook his head. "It's cool, I can find it myself."

Together they left the room but they parted in the main entrance hall, Hermione headed back to the Beauxbatons quarters on the third floor while Scorpius headed off to find the owlrey.

Ten minutes later and Scorpius had found the owlrey, courtesy of a pretty redheaded girl called Lily. He could have been at the owlrey earlier but once he had asked Lily for directions he couldn't help but stay and flirt with her for a while.

Entering the owlrey, Scorpius found there was someone else preparing to send an owl. It was the Hogwarts champion, Albus, who he had met earlier. The pair had just introduced themselves to each other properly, when their heads of schools had arrived in the ante chamber.

"Hello, again." Scorpius said, smiling at the boy.

"Hello. Are you here to send an owl to your family too?" Albus asked, tying a letter to an owl's leg and releasing it.

"Yes, but I've actually forgot to bring any parchment and a quill." Scorpius said, just realising his stupidity.

"Here borrow some of mine." Albus offered, pointing to a large stack of parchment sitting on a table. "And there's a spare quill."

"Thanks. Why do you have so much parchment?" Scorpius asked, pulling a piece of parchment in front of him.

"I have a huge family, so I've got lots of letters to write." Albus said. "That letter that just went was to my brother, James. He left school last year and he's going to be so jealous of me entering the tournament."

Scorpius laughed at Albus, he thought he could easily become friends with the boy. "I wish I had a brother to make jealous. All I've got is a younger sister."

"I've got one of them as well. She's in fifth year, a year younger than me." Albus said. "How olds your sister?" He asked Scorpius.

"Lyra's eleven." Scorpius replied, finishing his letter.

Scorpius tied his letter to a nearby owl and let it go, hoping it was a fast flyer and could get to France quite quickly. Maybe he would have been better off asking his mother if he could have made a floo call to his father instead.

"You can write some more if you want. I don't mind." Albus offered, chewing the end of his quill nervously.

"Thanks, I might write to my grandparents." Scorpius said, grabbing another piece of parchment. "Are you having problems with what to write?" He had noticed that Albus seemed unsure of what to write on his latest letter.

"I am on this one. It's for my mum. She'll probably kill me for entering the tournament." Albus admitted. "I bet you any money she sends me a howler."

"You're mum would send you a howler?" Scorpius asked shocked, his own mother could be quite strict but he could never imagine that she would do something like that.

"Yes, I've never actually had one off her but my brother used to get them regularly when he was in school, he caused loads of trouble." Albus said, his voice taking on a proud tone when he talked about his brother.

"When I get into trouble mum just shouts at me herself." Scorpius said. He had caused more than his fair share of trouble and had incurred Hermione's wrath on numerous occasions.

"Does your dad ever tell you off, or is it just your mum?" Albus asked. "My dad's fairly lenient, it's mum who shouts in our house."

"Dad occasionally tells me off but he rarely shouts. That's mum's speciality. She has a way with words and can make you feel really bad really quick." Scorpius said.

"Sounds scary." Albus said, still struggling with his letter.

"She's not really. She's great." Scorpius smiled. He was close with both his parents and admired his mother just as much as he did his father.

Scorpius attached another letter to another owl, this one addressed to his grandparents.

"Thanks for the parchment. I hope your letter goes well." Scorpius said as he headed to the door.

"Thanks." Albus said, looking up from the letter and smiling at the blond boy. "I'll see you later."

"Bye." Scorpius said as he left the room, leaving Albus muttering over what to write in his letter to Ginny.


	3. Preparations for the First Task

A nervous tension had filled the air at Hogwarts in the week leading up to the first task. Rumours of what the task could involve swirled around the school as a large hexagonal structure was erected on the Quidditch pitch. The most popular theory was a test involving some sort of magical creatures like dragons. Everyone knew that dragons were the first task when Professor Potter had competed in the tournament.

The morning of the task found the population of Hogwarts crowding into the newly built structure. Even though the task wasn't due to start until twelve thirty, by eleven all the stadium was full, bar for the part reserved for the judges and families of the champions. The students in the crowd carried on contemplating what was coming up as they surveyed a large pool filled with rocks. The dragon theory seemed pretty extinct with the large body of water sitting in the middle of the arena.

While the three champions were each in a separate room up at the castle, anxiously awaiting their family's arrival, the four judges were making final checks on the first task.

"I wish we could have come up with something different to dragons." Harry sighed. His own experiences with the creatures had left him with a distinctly anti-dragon attitude.

"We decided that dragon's provided the best option. You know how hard we looked for other options, Harry." Padma said.

"Besides it is different. They are water dragons." Hermione offered, even though she wasn't entirely convinced they were much different from the dragon's you found on land.

"I suppose." Harry said, eyeing up a blue water dragon that was currently curled up in a large tank.

"They don't look particularly lively." Professor Polanski said. He was standing by the red water dragon's tank and it didn't look any more active than the blue one.

"That's because they're in small spaces. When we release them into the pool, they'll become more active." Teddy Lupin, the dragon expert said as he entered the room.

Hermione had been surprised when Harry had introduced the dragon expert as Teddy. She hadn't seen him since he was a baby and she had no idea he now worked with exotic magical creatures.

"As long as you're sure. We actually want a contest." Professor Polanski sniffed, not looking entirely convinced by Teddy's reassurances.

"I'm sure." Teddy said firmly.

"I'm sure they'll be fine Teddy." Harry said, patting his godson on the arm. "We'll be off. The family's should be arriving soon and I need to make sure Ginny doesn't kill Al before we start."

"Is she still upset?" Hermione asked.

The whole school had found out exactly how upset the redhead was the morning after the champions were chosen. As Albus had predicted his mother had sent him a howler, which went off in the middle of breakfast. Hermione couldn't help but be reminded of the time Ron had received a howler in their second year at school. When she was angry Ginny sounded remarkably like her mother, Molly.

"Yes. I've told her a thousand times the tournament is much safer than when I competed, otherwise we wouldn't have lowered the age limit. I've managed to calm her slightly but who knows how she'll react when she witnesses the task." Harry said as they began to walk back to the school.

As they walked back towards the school, Hermione thought about the decision she had made to keep her relationship to Scorpius a secret. While it felt underhand and she disliked not being able to show affection for her son, she had witnessed how hard it would have been if everyone had known of their link, like it had been for Harry and Albus.

Harry was under constant pressure to maintain a neutral stand and to make sure he didn't favour his son during the tasks. She was aware of how closely he was being watched to make sure he was being fair. As for Albus, the poor boy had had to endure constant digs that he had only been chosen as champion because of Harry. Hermione knew that no matter what Harry and Albus did throughout the tournament there would be people saying that Harry was either helping his son or trying to fix it for him to win.

Witnessing the reaction to Albus' participation in the tournament, Hermione was convinced they had made the right decision regarding Scorpius. Her own integrity wouldn't be called into question throughout the tournament and Scorpius could perform without the added pressure of rumours surrounding his participation. If Scorpius won there might be a few people questioning Hermione's bias, but hopefully by then people will see she had been an incredibly fair judge and wouldn't dream of favouring her own son.

Arriving at the school, the three heads of schools went their separate ways to their champions. Professor Polanski headed to see his student before his family arrived while Harry and Hermione headed off to see their sons.

Hermione arrived in the classroom Scorpius was in to find her son pacing the floor. When he entered he looked up expectantly, seeing his mother he smiled at her but continued the pacing. Hermione knew Scorpius wasn't disappointed to see her, he was just anxious to see Draco. Hermione was also anxious to see her husband, they had never spent so long apart and Hermione was missing him like mad. While she spoke to him every day via the floo network it wasn't the same as seeing him in person.

Neither Hermione or Scorpius had to wait long to see Draco, as a few minutes after Hermione entered the room the door opened again and Draco walked into the room followed by his mother.

"Dad. Gran." Scorpius beamed, hurrying to his father and grandmother.

Narcissa gave her grandson a hug while Draco patted his son on the back, he knew from experience that sixteen year old boys do not like to hug their fathers.

"Are you okay, Scorp?" Draco asked.

"I'm great." Scorpius grinned, feeling more relaxed and confident now his family had arrived.

"Good. We're all really proud of you." Draco said, smiling at his son. "Lyra sends her love and wishes you good luck."

"So does your grandfather." Narcissa said.

"Where is Grandpa? Why didn't he come?" Scorpius asked.

"He said he'd be here for the last task." Narcissa said to her grandson before turning her attention to her daughter-in-law. "Hermione, it's lovely to see you."

"It's nice to see you too." Hermione replied, hugging Narcissa.

While Hermione and Narcissa were catching up, Draco turned to his son who seemed upset by Lucius' no show.

"I promise your grandfather will be here for the third task. So will your sister." Draco told his son.

"Okay." Scorpius nodded, still slightly upset. "I just hoped he could come today."

"Do you want to know why he's waiting?" Draco asked, checking Hermione wasn't listening. He knew that his wife would not be happy with what he was about to tell his son.

"Why?" Scorpius asked.

"He's waiting so when he comes to a task he can watch you be crowned the winner. That way he can say you won because you had him supporting you." Draco watched as his son brightened up considerably by what he had just told him.

"What are you grinning about?" Hermione asked, becoming suspicious of the whispering going on between her husband and son.

"He's just looking forward to the first task." Draco said hastily.

"What have you said, Draco." Hermione demanded. She knew her husband too well and knew he had told Scorpius something she wouldn't approve of. He had probably told him he would defiantly win the tournament, building him up for potential disappointment.

"Nothing. I just told him we're proud of him, whatever happens throughout the tournament." Draco said.

Hermione stared at her husband and Draco knew she wasn't convinced by his lies. Deciding distracting her was the best way to make her forget any potential interrogation, Draco walked over to his wife and swept her up in his arms.

"I forgot to say hello." Draco said, pulling Hermione into a searing kiss.

"Eeww." Scorpius crinkled his nose in disgust at his parents actions. "Stop that."

Hermione and Draco reluctantly broke apart but Draco kept his arm wrapped tightly around his wife's waist. Scorpius tutted and rolled his eyes at his parents behaviour, sometimes they acted like teenagers not adults who were nearly forty.

"I think it's time I headed down to the champions tent." Scorpius said, not wanting to witness another display of affection from his parents.

"Mother can you walk down with Scorp, I'll meet you outside the stadium in a few minutes." Draco said.

Narcissa nodded, a knowing smile playing around her lips. She knew her son wanted a few minutes alone with his wife. She just hoped they managed to behave themselves, it wouldn't be the first time her son and his wife had been caught in a compromising position. As Narcissa and Scorpius left the room, Hermione and Draco could hear Scorpius muttering about the disgusting behaviour of his parents.

Hermione turned to her husband, a large smile on her face. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too. Our bed's incredibly big and lonely without you in it." Draco said.

Hermione smiled at her husband and wrapping her arms around his neck pulled him down for another kiss. As they were kissing, Hermione felt Draco's hands wandering over her body. When his hands started sneaking into the front of her robes, Hermione reluctantly broke the kiss and moved away from her husband. Things could get very heated, very quickly between the pair of them and an empty classroom moments before their son's first task in the Triwizard Tournament was hardly an appropriate place to catch up.

"Later." Hermione said, turning towards the door. "We have to go, the task will be starting soon."

"Fine, let's go." Draco said, quickly stepping up behind Hermione and stopping her leaving the room. "I can't wait till later, Mrs Malfoy." He whispered seductively in her ear, causing Hermione's heart rate to speed up rapidly.

Smirking to himself, Draco stepped away from his flustered wife and continued towards the door. Gathering herself, Hermione followed him and together the two walked out of the school and down towards the Quidditch pitch where the task would unfold. While Draco took a waiting Narcissa into the stands, Hermione headed into the champions tent, where the final instructions were about to be given.

Hermione was the last person to arrive at the tent. All three champions, Padma, and the other two heads were already present. Also in the tent was Neville, Hermione knew he was staying with the three champions to make sure everything ran smoothly behind the scenes.

"Now we're all present, I'll explain the point of the task. In the arena is a pool. In the pool are rocks like these." Padma held up a large rock and showed it to the group. "There are three rocks with your school's crest engraved on in that pool. Your task is simple, retrieve the rock with your school crest on it. But be warned we have a water dragon guarding the pool."

"Everyone must pick a ball from this bag." Harry said, stepping forward with a small black bag in his hand. "Each ball represents the colour of your dragon. Like all living creatures each dragon has its own personality. While some dragons may be mild mannered others may be quite vicious."

Harry passed the bag to Novak first, reaching into the bag the champion from Durmstrang picked out the red ball. Albus was next and he picked out the blue ball, leaving Scorpius with the green ball.

"The order you picked your balls from the bag is the order in which you will compete." Padma said. "The contest will start in ten minutes, Professor Longbottom will make sure you arrive in the arena in the correct order. He will also ensure you'll receive medical attention if it is required."

As Padma left the tent, each head spoke to their champion for one final time before leaving them alone to prepare for the task ahead.


	4. The First Task

As the head teachers arrived at the stands, Hermione hoped that Draco wouldn't cause any trouble with Harry. For some reason the judges and families were sitting in the same stand for all three tasks. Hermione was behind Harry as they entered the stand and she knew immediately when he had set eyes on her husband as his posture stiffened and she distinctly heard him mutter the word ferret under his breath. She watched as her husband and former best friend locked eyes, animosity still evident between the pair.

Entering the stand properly, Hermione could feel the tension in the small area. Ginny Potter and her parents, Arthur and Molly Weasley were sitting on one side of the judges table shooting dirty looks across it to where Draco and Narcissa were sitting. Hermione sighed to herself, it seemed that even after twenty years The Weasley's were still holding grudges about the pair's participation in the war, something both Draco and Narcissa had worked very hard to make up for.

"Hermione." Ginny yelled spotting her former friend standing beside Harry. She had been looking forward to seeing Hermione ever since her husband informed her of the witch's presence at the tournament. Ginny hadn't seen her friend since just after Hermione's break up with her brother and the only contact they had had since then was when Hermione sent a card and a present to her wedding to Harry.

"Hello Ginny. It's nice to see you." Hermione said, smiling at the younger witch. "Molly, Arthur." She greeted Ginny's parents as well, even though the older couple didn't look thrilled to see her. Molly still hadn't forgiven Hermione for breaking her youngest son's heart.

Molly and Arthur said hello politely before they turned back to their own conversation. Hermione could clearly hear the couple discussing Draco and Narcissa and their presence at the tournament, which was disgraceful in their opinion. They weren't being complimentary or particularly quiet and Hermione was sure her husband and mother-in-law could hear every spiteful word they uttered.

Hermione quickly turned away from the couple before she gave them a piece of her mind. Fuming silently she took her seat at the end of the judges panel. As Harry sat down next to her, Hermione glanced to her left to find Draco watching her with a concerned look on his face. She smiled slightly to reassure Draco she was fine and wasn't going to do anything rash regarding Molly and Arthur who were still being incredibly rude about her family. As Molly and Arthur continued their loud discussion, Hermione could see that Draco was reaching breaking point with the couple. His grey eyes were flashing furiously and the muscles in his jaw were twitching as he forcibly kept his mouth shut to avoid saying something to the couple.

Luckily Padma stood up and started addressing the crowd, before Draco snapped and said something he would regret later.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to the first task of The Triwizard Tournament." Padma said in an amplified voice. "In this task the champions must retrieve a rock with their school emblem on from the pool, but they won't be alone in the pool."

Padma paused dramatically as Teddy entered the arena levitating a large tank of water beside him. Murmurs came from the crowd as Teddy placed the tank beside the pool, people were trying to identify the mysterious creature inside the tank. Stepping back from the side of the pool, Teddy waved his wand and the side of the tank disappeared. With a ferocious splash the red dragon dived into the pool, spreading it's body to its full size.

"Each champion must nullify a water dragon so they can retrieve their rock." Padma explained to the crowd as Teddy left the arena. "Please welcome the first champion from Durmstrang, Novak Kostas."

The arena erupted into cheers as Novak entered the arena, looking very nervous and incredibly small. As Novak walked towards the pool, silence swept over the arena. Stepping up to the side of the pool Novak raised his wand in the air.

"Accio, Durmstrang rock." Novak called, swishing his wand.

As Novak flicked his wand, a great wall of water erupted from the pool soaking the Durmstrang champion and several spectators who were seated nearby. Shouts and jeers erupted around the stadium at Novak's spectacular failure. As the spectators quieted down again and returned their focus to the pool, they could see the dragon was swirling around the pool furiously sending up waves of water as it went.

Novak cautiously stepped back up towards the pool and began shooting hexes at the dragon. For ten minutes he shot curses at the dragon, pinning it into a corner away from the rocks. When he thought the dragon was no longer a problem, Novak entered the pool. For the first few minutes the dragon didn't bother him as he dove around looking for the rock with the Durmstrang crest on.

Suddenly the dragon left his corner and lunged for the champion from Durmstrang. Luckily Novak was quick enough that he managed to emerge from the pool with only a nasty gash to his arm. For a while it looked like the boy was going to quit the task but when he looked at his headmaster, Professor Polanski shook his head sternly at the boy.

Novak then re-entered the pool, constantly shooting spells at the dragon to keep it at bay while he searched for the rock. Fifteen minutes later, Novak was triumphant and left the pool bleeding in several places.

As Novak headed to receive medical attention, Teddy re-entered the arena with the tank for the dragon. Setting the tank beside the pool, Teddy cast several spells over the dragon causing it to take on a placid demeanour. When it was manageable, Teddy quickly bundled the dragon into the tank and left the arena.

While the pool was being cleaned for the second champion, the judges quietly discussed Novak's efforts. Apart from Professor Polanski no one was impressed with the boy's magical skill or logical thinking.

Once the pool was clean Teddy returned with another dragon, this one electric blue in colour. Once the dragon was safely swimming in the pool, Padma once again stood up to address the crowd.

"Please welcome the second champion representing Hogwarts, Albus Potter."

The cheers that erupted from the crowd were deafening, Albus was the home champion and very popular. As she politely applauded Hermione watched the Weasley's clapping and cheering for their grandson. Ginny was also clapping and cheering loudly and though he refrained from being too over the top Harry was also cheering on his son quite loudly.

Stepping up to the pool, Albus surveyed the dragon for several minutes before doing anything. Finally deciding on a plan Albus raised his wand and cast a charm that encased his whole body in a bubble. Carefully he walked towards the pool and slowly entered it, letting the dragon get used to his presence.

Standing in the middle of the pool, Albus remained still letting the dragon sniff around the bubble. Seemingly satisfied the bubble posed no threat, the dragon swam off leaving Albus to start his search. Albus carefully headed for the collection of rocks, he was deliberately moving slowly as to avoid angering the dragon.

Unfortunately once he reached the rocks, Albus encountered a problem. He couldn't actually touch the rocks through his bubble in order to search through them. Using his wand, he carefully created two small holes for his hands in the bubble. Sticking his hands through the gaps, Albus began to search the rocks for the one bearing the Hogwarts crest.

As he was in the bubble, he couldn't move quickly so the search took a long time. Because the search was taking so long, the magic bubble began to wear off in places and Albus failed to notice this until the dragon reappeared and bit his ankle. Swearing loudly Albus jumped away from the dragon, dislodging a pile of rocks as he did so. Luckily for Albus the rock he wanted was in those he had dislodged. Grabbing the rock, Albus flung himself out of the pool just as the dragon was preparing to take another bite at him.

Loud cheers erupted from the stadium as Albus emerged from the water with the rock. Those cheers lessened when Albus went to stand up and found he couldn't put any pressure on his bitten ankle, resulting in him falling back down. The stadium went quiet as the school nurse rushed into the arena along with Neville.

As Neville and the nurse examined Albus' ankle, Harry was busy calming Ginny who was becoming hysterical at the sight of her son sitting injured in the arena. Hermione sat watching the entire event, hoping that Scorpius had a solid plan in place for when it was his turn.

After a few minutes, Neville turned and looked up at the judges and families stand with a smile on his face. He shouted up that Albus was okay, he just had a swollen ankle but it would be fine. Despite knowing that her son would be fine, Ginny insisted on leaving the stand and going to see Albus.

Molly and Arthur decided to go with their daughter and the three of them left the stand. Hermione found herself relieved that the Weasley's had left the stand, she wasn't sure if she could have remained silent if they had dared to insult Scorpius when it was his turn.

After Ginny and her parents had left, the judges discussed Albus' performance while the pool was cleaned and the dragon retrieved. It was unanimously decided that his use of magic had been extremely creative and although the finer details of his plan was a little lacking it was overall a solid performance.

When the stage was set for the final time, Padma stood to address the crowd once more.

"Now for our final champion representing Beauxbatons, Scorpius Malfoy."

Once again the crowd erupted into cheers, while not quite as loud as the ones for Albus they were significantly louder than those for Novak. In the short time he had been staying at the school, Scorpius had amassed quite a fan club. He was proving quite popular with the students from Hogwarts, especially the female portion.

Hermione watched with pride as her son strode into the arena, out of the three boys he was the one who seemed most confident.

Without hesitation Scorpius walked to the edge of the pool, getting a good look at the lime green dragon he was up against. Pulling his wand out of his pocket, Scorpius cast a spell in French. A few seconds later one of the rocks lit up with a light blue glow.

Hermione couldn't help the small smile that graced her lips as she realised what her son had done. Unlike the other two who had blindly entered the pool looking for one rock amongst dozens, Scorpius had immediately identified the rock he needed to retrieve. A quick glance around the box revealed to Hermione that both Harry and Draco knew exactly how impressive that logic was. While Draco wore a huge smirk, Harry was looking slightly put out by Scorpius' forward planning. Turning her attention back to the arena, Hermione waited to see how Scorpius dealt with the dragon.

Once he had located the rock he needed, Scorpius sat down on the floor of the arena much to the shock and bemusement of the crowd. As the crowd waited for his next move, Scorpius stuck the end of his wand into the pool and recited another spell in French. Removing his wand from the water, Scorpius settled down to wait.

Only the people who spoke French knew the purpose of the spell that Scorpius had cast, so nearly everyone else was unsure of what was happening. Hermione of course knew what spell her son had cast as did Draco and Narcissa, who were both sitting looking extremely proud.

"What's going on? What did he do?" Harry whispered to Hermione. While Harry didn't understand a word of French he knew that Hermione was obvious fluent in the language as she lived and worked in France.

"Watch." Hermione said, unable to keep the pride from her voice.

Harry turned back to the arena and like everyone else waited to see what was going to happen next. For a while it looked like nothing was going to happen, Scorpius sat casually by the pool while the dragon swam slowly around the pool occasionally passing right by the rock that was shimmering with a blue light.

"Look at the dragon." Someone suddenly shouted.

Everyone's attention immediately went to the pool and the green dragon inside it. The dragon's movements were getting slower and slower, until it eventually curled itself up into a ball and went to sleep. As Scorpius stood up and entered the pool quietly, everyone realised what he had done. He had put the dragon to sleep so he would have no problem retrieving his rock.

It took Scorpius a few seconds to remove the rock from the pool, unlike the other two boys he didn't have to search for it as he had already located it first. As Scorpius emerged from the pool the crowd went wild, the blond was quickly becoming a very popular champion.

After Scorpius had left the arena the judges started deliberating over his performance. Hermione deliberately kept quiet, only delivering her opinions if asked. The other three judges all agreed that Scorpius' actions had been incredibly clever and extremely well thought out, they couldn't find one thing to fault him on.

Once the judges had finished talking, Padma announced the results would be read in ten minutes. In those ten minutes, the three champions were escorted back into the arena to massive applause. As the boys stood in the middle of the arena, Hermione couldn't help but notice that Scorpius was helping prop Albus up as the dark haired boy was clearly still having trouble putting pressure on his bitten ankle.

Ginny and her parents also returned in the ten minutes before the results were read. When they noticed that Albus was being helped by Scorpius down in the arena and the two boys were laughing and joking together, Hermione thought that the two Weasley's would explode. They turned bright red and were clearly extremely put out by the identity of their grandson's new friend. Hermione watched as Harry and Ginny discussed their son's new friend, while they didn't seem as put out by it as Ginny's parents they looked far from happy with the situation.

Hermione watched as Harry and Ginny turned to check out Draco's reaction, they clearly expected him to be put out by his son's obvious friendship with theirs.

"Something wrong, Potter?" Draco asked with a smirk.

The truth was he couldn't care less who his son was friends with as long as he was happy. As a child Draco himself had been told by Lucius who he could and could not befriend, so he knew from experience how annoying it was to have someone else make decisions about your life.

"No." Harry said, slowly. "Your son did well." He added slightly begrudgingly.

"So did yours." Draco replied, meaning it. He had been quite impressed by Albus' display.

Before the two men could say anymore Padma called for silence as it was time to announce the results.

"All three champions performed admirably and showed great magical knowledge. But it was obvious to the judges that there was a clear winner. He showed immense skill and tactical knowledge. Ladies and Gentlemen the winner of the first task is Scorpius Malfoy."

Loud cheers surrounded the stadium as the winner was unsurprisingly announced as Scorpius, it was clear to everyone watching that the blond boy had performed the best. Hermione noticed that Albus congratulated her son straight away.

Once the crowd had quietened slightly Padma began again. "Second place goes to Albus Potter." Amid the cheers, Hermione noticed that Scorpius was now the one congratulating Albus. "That brings an end to the first task. Thank you all for supporting all three champions."

At the end of Padma's speech the stadium began to rapidly clear as the students headed back to the castle for something to eat and to discuss the afternoon's events. Hermione noticed the Weasley's left the stand extremely quickly, shooting Draco and Narcissa cold looks as they passed. Ginny tutted at her parents behaviour but never apologised and left with Harry shortly after their exit.

Once the three Malfoy's were left alone, Narcissa kissed Hermione goodbye and left to inform Lucius of Scorpius' amazing performance in the first task. Hermione and Draco walked slowly back up to the school, making the most of their brief time alone. Draco had arranged to see Scorpius after the task and spend some time with his son, and if he was lucky he could also manage to grab some alone time with Hermione.


	5. Winter Arrrives

The first task of The Triwizard Tournament was the main topic of gossip among the students of Hogwarts for nearly a month after the event. Before the task the majority of students had been backing their own school champion, Albus, but after witnessing the first task a great deal of them started supporting Scorpius as well.

The tentative friendship that had begun to form, during the first task, between Scorpius and Albus flourished as the weeks went on. The boys had discovered they had quite a few shared interests and they got along great, it was almost as if they'd known each other forever. Scorpius and Albus spent all their spare time together exchanging stories of their school adventures and debating about who supported the better Quidditch team.

When the announcement of The Yule Ball, that traditionally accompanies The Triwizard Tournament, was made the school's gossip switched from the first task to the tricky situation of who was attending the ball with who. It was the ball that caused the first minor problem in Scorpius and Albus friendship.

Scorpius had immediately known who he had wanted to take to the ball, the beautiful red head who had shown him the way to the owlrey back in September. By this point Scorpius was aware that the red head was Albus younger sister, Lily. But Scorpius was unsure how his new friend would react to the news he fancied his sister. Scorpius knew he could have the pick of almost any girl he wanted, he had attracted quite a following among the female population with his natural charm and flirty personality, but he only had eyes for Lily.

Valuing his new friendship with Albus, Scorpius had approached his friend before he even considered asking Lily to the ball. Albus had been rather put out by the idea, but agreed to let Scorpius ask his sister to the ball if he helped him get a date. Scorpius agreed and the two boys set out to get Albus a date for the ball. With Albus' permission Scorpius asked Lily to the ball and she immediately said yes.

Scorpius had been quite surprised that Albus would struggle to get dates as he was quite a good looking boy. Scorpius soon discovered that while Albus was extremely popular, he was painfully shy when it came to dealing with the female species. The last thing Scorpius was, was shy. He had inherited his father's cockiness and was a very confident young man.

Scorpius set about helping Albus overcoming his shyness by persuading him to go to Hogsmeade on a double date with him and Lily. Lily brought along one of her friends and the four had a great time. By the end of the date Albus had slightly more confidence in talking to girls. Scorpius kept using Lily's friends to build up Albus' confidence with the girls. It was also a perfect excuse for Scorpius to spend time with Lily, who he was becoming increasingly fond of.

When Scorpius felt that Albus was ready, they set about finding him a date. While Scorpius was quizzing him about which girls he liked, Albus confessed he had taken a liking to one of the girls from Beauxbatons, Imogen. Scorpius was pretty friendly with Imogen so agreed to set his friend up with her. After an afternoon by the Black Lake with Imogen, Albus had a date to the ball.

By the day of the Yule Ball, Christmas Eve, it was all anyone could talk about and by lunch time there wasn't a girl in sight as they had all rushed off to get ready. After lunch the students were ushered out of The Great Hall as the Professor's and some student volunteers started preparing it for the night's festivities. As neither of them wanted to be roped into helping with the decorating, Scorpius and Albus decided to spend the afternoon playing wizard's chess in the Beauxbatons common room. They preferred to hang out in the Beauxbatons common room rather than the Gryffindor one as it was far quieter with only six students sharing it.

When Albus and Scorpius arrived in the common room they were surprised to find it empty.

"Where is everyone?" Albus asked, looking around the deserted room. There wasn't even any noise coming from the bedrooms.

"Imogen went to get ready with Lily at dinner time and Pierre and Anya went home this morning." Scorpius said. "But I don't know where Pascal and Martin are."

Pierre, Anya, Pascal and Martin along with Scorpius and Imogen were the six students who had arrived for the Triwizard Tournament.

"Why did Pierre and Anya go home? Are they not staying for the rest of the tournament?" Albus asked, sitting down at the table where the chess board was sitting.

"They've just gone home for Christmas. The rest of us are going home tomorrow." Scorpius explained as he set up the chessboard.

"So you're going back to France for the holidays." Albus said, making the first move in the game.

"Nah. We're having Christmas at the Manor." Scorpius said. Albus' eyes widened at the thought, growing up he had heard a lot of bad stories about the Malfoy's and their Manor, especially from his Uncle Ron, but he didn't want to upset his friend by asking questions about his grandparents.

For the rest of the afternoon Scorpius and Albus played chess, each winning a couple of games each. At four o'clock Pascal and Martin returned to get ready for the ball, both Scorpius and Albus scoffed about the length of time the two French boys were about to spend getting ready.

It was nearly six, before Albus decided he should head up to Gryffindor Tower to start getting ready. As Albus was arranging to meet Scorpius in the entrance hall, Hermione entered the room surprised to see her son and his friend.

"Are you two not planning on getting ready for tonight?" Hermione asked as she entered the room.

"I'm just off Madame Granger." Albus said, smiling at the older witch. "See you later Scorp."

"Bye Al." Scorp said to his friend. After Albus had left he turned to face his mother. "How long will you be at the ball tonight?"

"Don't worry, I'll not be there long. I won't embarrass you." Hermione laughed at her son.

"Good." Scorpius muttered as he left the room. He had a beautiful girl to impress the last thing he wanted was his mother cramping his style.

Hermione chuckled at her son and headed towards her own room. Looking at the dark blue dress hanging behind the door, Hermione wished she didn't have to attend the ball tonight.

She was finding it hard enough to avoid Harry, without having to spend time with him on a social basis. While Hermione actually would have loved to talk to Harry properly she couldn't risk him asking about her husband or children, while she was fine with keeping her relationship to Scorpius and Draco quiet she wasn't about to blatantly lie to her friend. Since arriving at the school she had tried to avoid spending too much time alone so Harry couldn't corner her. She had turned down his offer for her students to take classes with the Hogwarts ones, instead preferring to teach them herself, at least that way she had an excuse to be busy all day.

As she started to get ready, Hermione could only hope that she managed to avoid any tricky conversations with Harry over the course of the night. Luckily she was spending the rest of the Christmas holidays away from Hogwarts, she had asked Harry to connect the fire in her room to the floo network properly so she and her students could return home for Christmas.

Hermione was looking forward to spending a few weeks with her family, she hadn't seen her daughter since she arrived at Hogwarts at the beginning of September. She had also barely seen Draco since he had been present at the first task. Hermione was missing sleeping in the same bed as Draco, while they had managed to meet up for the odd few hours over weekends it wasn't the same as being with him all night. The longest time they had managed to spend together was one Sunday a few weeks ago, the couple had snuck off to a hotel and spent the entire day together.

When she was dressed, Hermione doubled checked her appearance before leaving for The Great Hall. As she passed through the common room she debated whether or not to check on Scorpius but decided to leave him alone. Leaving the common room she headed downstairs, eager to get the night over with.

Entering The Great Hall, Hermione felt like she had stepped back in time to her fourth year. The large room was decorated very similarly to the night of The Yule Ball she had attended as a student.

"Brings back memories doesn't it." A voice behind Hermione said. Hermione turned to find Ginny standing in the doorway of the Great Hall.

"It does." Hermione said.

"You look great. Living in France obviously suits you." Ginny said, moving to stand next to Hermione.

"Thanks. It does, I love it." Hermione said, smiling as thoughts of her family ran through her head. "What are you doing here?" Hermione asked, suddenly realising Ginny's presence wasn't something she had expected.

"I agreed to help Harry chaperone." Ginny said. "Besides that way I can keep an eye on Al and Lily."

"As long as that's all you do." Harry said, coming up behind Ginny and Hermione.

"What else would I do?" Ginny asked innocently.

"I'm never sure, with you." Harry chuckled, giving his wife a peck on the cheek. "You look gorgeous by the way." He added, looking closely at his wife.

Hermione smiled at the sight of her former friends, clearly they were still very much in love and happy together.

"You look lovely, Hermione." Harry turned his attention to his friend.

"Thank you, Harry." Hermione said.

Just then the doors to the Great Hall opened and Neville appeared followed by a group of men with music equipment.

"The band are setting up for later." Neville explained as the men headed towards the stage.

"Who are they?" Hermione asked. Living in France she had no idea about the latest wizarding music trends in Britain.

"The Hobgoblins." Ginny said, not looking impressed. "Apparently they're the best."

"You don't look impressed." Hermione laughed.

"They're dreadful." Neville whispered. "It just sounds like a bunch of screaming to me."

"Me too. Maybe we're getting old." Ginny said laughing with Neville.

"When are they going to play?" Hermione asked. She hadn't been involved in much of the planning of the tournament, she had left that to her deputy head who had begged her to let him be involved with the organisation.

"After the more traditional dancing part of the ball. So I think it might be about half nine." Harry said.

"My cue to leave for the night." Hermione said, already counting down the minutes.

"You're not staying all night?" Ginny questioned sounding disappointed.

"No. I'm planning on having some peace and quiet while there's not six teenagers around." Hermione explained. "Besides I need to be up early tomorrow to sort out the return home of the students."

"Harry said you were letting your students go home for Christmas, that's nice." Neville said.

"It's for purely selfish reasons. If they all go home then so can I." Hermione said to Neville.

As Hermione was talking Harry checked his watch, making sure they didn't forget to start the ball on time.

"It's time to begin. Neville you can let the students in and sort the champions and their partners out." Harry said.

"I can't wait to see Albus dance." Ginny said as Neville left the room. "He has two left feet like his father."

"Hey." Harry protested but at the sight of the two women staring at him he admitted defeat. "Alright, so dancing isn't a skill I possess."

As Hermione and Ginny laughed at Harry and his dancing skills the doors to The Great Hall opened and students started pouring in.

"Can I have everyone's attention." Harry clapped his hands once the room was full causing it to lapse into silence. "The first part of the ball is a traditional dance. In a few minutes the champions and their partners will arrive and have the first dance, after that anyone can take to the floor. There is also food and drink around the room, so feel free to help yourselves. Later tonight we also have The Hobgoblins performing."

Harry's announcement of the hottest band in wizarding Britain playing caused widespread celebrations amongst the students. As Harry calmed the excited room and made everyone step back off the dance floor to make room for the champions, Ginny was busy scanning the crowds.

Harry stepped back to stand beside Hermione and his wife, awaiting the entrance of the three champions. Ginny who had failed to spot her daughter in the crowd, turned to whisper in Harry's ear.

"Where's Lily?"


	6. The Yule Ball

Ginny's whispered question had Harry searching the hall for his daughter, he couldn't see her red head anywhere. Before he had a chance to do anything about his missing daughter the doors opened and the champions started arriving.

First to enter was the Durmstrang champion, Novak and his date, a Hufflepuff sixth year called Amy. Novak looked uncomfortable in his dark dress robes while his date looked embarrassed to be the centre of attention.

Next to enter was Albus and his date, Imogen. Both Harry and Ginny were surprised to notice how confident their son looked, he didn't look the slightest bit embarrassed about being in the spotlight. He also looked totally at ease with the beautiful girl on his arm.

If Harry and Ginny were surprised by their son's relaxed appearance they were even more stunned by what happened next. Scorpius was the last champion to enter the room, he looked a lot older than his sixteen years when he was dressed in his best robes and bore an even more canny resemblance to his father. It wasn't Scorpius' obvious resemblance to Draco that shocked The Potters, it was the lovely redheaded girl on his arm. The couple were stunned to see their daughter on the arm of a Malfoy, especially as she looked totally besotted by the blond.

"What the hell is Lily doing with him?" Ginny hissed to Harry as the champions and their partners took their places for the first dance.

"I have no idea. I would have stopped it had I known." Harry hissed back.

Listening to Harry and Ginny's whispered conversation, Hermione couldn't help but smile at the sneakiness of her son. When she had asked about his date he had merely smirked and told her to wait and see. Like Draco he had the uncanny knack at working out how to cause trouble and how to wind people up without having to try.

As Harry and Ginny carried on a quiet conversation about Lily and Scorpius, Hermione watched as her son elegantly danced around the room with Lily in his arms. Luckily for Scorpius both his parents were good dancers and he had inherited their natural talent for looking elegant on the dance floor.

Once the first dance was over Ginny and Harry had hoped to speak to Lily, but her and Scorpius just carried on dancing and talking quietly together. Knowing they wouldn't get near to their daughter any time soon, Ginny dragged her husband onto the dance floor.

Hermione stood watching the couples for several minutes before Neville asked her to dance. Twirling around the room with Neville, Hermione remembered how much he had taken to dancing in their fourth year, clearly he had kept up his hobby. After dancing with Neville for several dances, Hermione excused herself to get a drink.

An hour into the dance, Hermione was getting extremely bored. Scorpius was clearly enjoying himself with Lily, the pair of them hadn't separated all night. When they weren't dancing they were sitting with Albus and Imogen. Hermione knew that Harry and Ginny were unhappy with events of the night, they kept shooting Scorpius dirty looks. They clearly didn't approve of Scorpius befriending both of their children. Hermione was saddened by her former friend's attitudes to her son but hoped things might be different when they discovered her real relationship to Scorpius.

When Harry and Ginny approached her and started talking Hermione nodded and smiled politely but wasn't really listening to the couple, instead she had let her mind wander to the upcoming festive period. It was Ginny's sudden exclamation of shock that drew Hermione's attention back to what was happening in the room.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Ginny exclaimed loud enough for a few people nearby to turn and look at the redhead.

Hermione looked up and got a huge shock as walking towards them with a huge smirk plastered all over his face was her husband.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" Harry hissed as the blond approached.

"Relax Potter, I'm not staying." Draco smirked at the former Gryffindor, pleased his little ploy had annoyed the man.

"Good." Ginny snarled quietly. "Harry, kick him out."

"Well Potter are you going to do as your wife says?" Draco taunted his old adversary.

"I'm not going to cause a scene, Malfoy." Harry said, reluctantly. There was nothing he would love more than to kick the annoying blond man out of his school. "Do whatever you've some to do then leave."

"Fine. I've come to make arrangements for my son retuning home tomorrow." Draco said haughtily. "But I don't fancy an audience. So it looks like I'll have to steal Granger for a while."

"No, I'm not letting you take Hermione out of my sight." Harry said, he defiantly didn't trust the former Slytherin.

Draco narrowed his eyes slightly at Harry dictating where he could take his wife. "Fine. It looks like we're dancing Granger." Draco held his hand out expectantly and raised an eyebrow at Hermione.

Hermione could see Harry getting ready to argue, so she took Draco's hand and let him sweep her onto the dance floor.

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked Draco as he wrapped her in his arms.

"Dancing." Draco replied smoothly.

"You know what I mean. I distinctly remember telling you not to cause trouble." Hermione sighed, knowing she might as well be talking to thin air for all the notice Draco would take.

"I came to see if I could steal you away. Winding up Potter was just a bonus." Draco said as the couple swept around the floor.

"It seems winding up Harry is a trait both you and Scorp have." Hermione said as she proceeded to tell Draco about their son's choice of date for the night.

"That's my boy. He's a true Slytherin." Draco grinned.

Hermione shook her head at her husband, but moved closer to him letting his scent wash over her. Dancing in The Great Hall at Hogwarts, Hermione couldn't help but think about how different things had been at the last Yule Ball. Back then she never would have thought she'd be happily married to Draco Malfoy, it was funny how things worked out sometimes.

...

_By the time she had been in France for six months, Hermione had settled into a comfortable routine and was enjoying her new life. She loved Beauxbatons and the beautiful countryside in which the school was located. As she was re-taking her seventh year, she had permission to leave the school property over the weekends. The school was in close proximity to two small villages, one wizarding and one muggle. Hermione had visited them both during her first few weeks at the school, but had come to favour a small café in the muggle village._

_Every Saturday afternoon, Hermione headed to the café and spent the afternoon either studying or reading while she relaxed in the friendly atmosphere of the small café. It was a rainy afternoon in mid-February that changed the course of Hermione's' life. While she was sitting studying, the door of the café opened and a wet Narcissa Malfoy entered the café._

_Hermione was shocked to see the pureblood witch in a muggle café in rural France, but didn't quite have the nerve to ask her why she was in the muggle world. The two women exchanged polite nods, but neither spoke to the other that afternoon. Hermione was surprised to find Narcissa in residence once again when she visited the café the following Saturday. After a few weeks of seeing the elegant blonde woman regularly in the muggle café, Hermione worked up the courage to talk to her._

_When Hermione approached Narcissa, the older woman invited her to sit down and the two women started talking. Hermione was surprised to find the blonde woman wasn't the cold and snobby pureblood she had once believed her to be. Instead Hermione found that Narcissa was warm and friendly with an engaging personality. For the next two months the two women met regularly on a Saturday afternoon and soon formed a solid friendship._

_Hermione had stayed in Britain long enough after the war to know that both Narcissa and Draco had escaped punishment for their reluctant part in the war while Lucius was sentenced to a short five year stretch in Azkaban. Narcissa explained that even though she and Draco had been pardoned for their involvement with the dark side, there was still a fraction of the wizarding community that believed that all three Malfoy's should have been punished and sent to Azkaban. With people gossiping about them and shunning them, Narcissa and Draco decided to relocate to the family's chateau in France to make a fresh start. Narcissa told Hermione that she would likely return to Britain when Lucius was released but she doubted that Draco would ever wish to return to the country of his birth._

_For her part, Hermione confided in Narcissa about her failed relationship with Ron and the reasons she had chosen to continue her education abroad. Narcissa had been very understanding and told Hermione she had done the right thing in not settling for someone and something she didn't want. Narcissa told Hermione that she should live her life the way she wanted to and when she met that special person he would fit into her life and she shouldn't have to sacrifice her own ambitions to make him happy. Hermione had been surprised to find the older woman's views were very similar to the way Hermione herself viewed what she wanted from a relationship._

_After being friends for just over two months, Narcissa asked Hermione if she would join her for dinner. Hermione was very reluctant to agree, she knew Draco lived at the chateau and wasn't sure what the former Slytherin would make of her presence in his house. From everything Narcissa had told her, Hermione knew that Draco was trying to put his past behind him and make a fresh start for himself but she was unsure if that included being civil to her. Narcissa assured her that Draco was a changed person, he knew all about his mother's friendship with Hermione and had no objection to the young witch becoming a regular part of their lives. Believing Narcissa when she assured her that Draco would behave, Hermione agreed to have dinner with the Malfoy's._

_When she arrived at the chateau for dinner, Hermione found herself in the presence of a very different Draco Malfoy, both in personality and looks. The last time Hermione had seen him a year ago he was thin, dishevelled looking and completely broken by events of the war. Like before the war his clothing and appearance were immaculate but his hair was now styled a lot more casually, it looked like he had just ran his hands through his platinum blond hair and let it fall where it liked. Hermione decided the more casual look suited him much better than when his hair was perfectly styled. He was also no longer the skinny teenager but a well-built young man, Hermione could tell at a glance that he obviously worked out, but not ridiculously so. He also had a bit more colour about him, while he would always be fairly pale he had a slight tan from the warmer climate he now lived in. All in all Hermione decided that Draco looked healthy and fairly happy with his new life. She was also surprised to realise she was actually attracted to the new and approved Draco._

_His personality had also changed somewhat. He immediately apologised to Hermione for his past behaviour and reassured her he no longer believed in the blood purity rubbish he used to regularly spout while at school. The events of the war had obviously had a lasting effect on the young Malfoy heir. While the more prejudiced side of his personality had changed, Hermione soon found that he was still as stubborn, opinionated and argumentative as he had ever been._

_At first dinner was fairly awkward. Hermione couldn't decide if it was the nasty past the pair shared making it awkward or her new found attraction to Draco. Hermione decided it was probably a bit of both, their history would take a while to get over while the attraction she felt for Draco seemed to be mutual. Hermione had caught Draco watching her a couple of times and whenever their eyes met there was a definite spark between them. Over the course of the meal the atmosphere grew more relaxed as Hermione and Draco found they had quite a bit in common. Hermione was delighted to discover they could talk about all sorts of topics she could never discus with Harry and Ron as they either had no interest or didn't understand what she was talking about. Hermione found it refreshing to have someone to talk to who was potentially as clever as her._

_After the first dinner, Narcissa insisted it became a regular thing so Hermione often found herself in Draco's company. The more time they spent together the more the attraction between the two of them grew, something that didn't go unnoticed by Narcissa. The older witch would often drop hints about a potential relationship between the pair and would constantly find excuses to leave the two of them alone together._

_Narcissa had been hopeful that something would finally happen between the pair of them on the night of Hermione's graduation from Beauxbatons. When Hermione mentioned the ceremony in late June, Narcissa insisted that she and Draco should attend as Hermione had no family to support her. Hermione had been touched by the gesture and relieved she wouldn't have to spend the day dwelling on the fact her parents couldn't be there. After the graduation ceremony, Narcissa took Hermione and Draco out for dinner before subtly leaving the pair alone. The next day, she was bitterly disappointed to find that nothing had happened between them and their mutual attraction was still un-acted upon._

_It was actually the middle of summer before Hermione and Draco gave into their attraction. Ironically by this time Narcissa had given up on playing matchmaker and decided to leave the pair of them to sort things out between them, she was confident that eventually they would end up together. _

_One extremely hot August night, Hermione had been at the chateau having dinner when Narcissa got a message from her friend asking to see her immediately. Unlike her other attempts at leaving Hermione and Draco alone, this time her emergency was actually a genuine one. Hermione and Draco had actually been bickering and sniping at each other all night, and once Narcissa had left it only got worse. Less than ten minutes after Narcissa had left the pair's bickering turned to passion as they ripped each other's clothes off and got frisky on Narcissa's antique coffee table. When Narcissa returned to the chateau later that night she was mad to discover her coffee table was broken, she was pacified when she discovered that Hermione and Draco had finally admitted their feelings for each other but she still made Draco replace her table._

_Hermione and Draco's relationship progressed rapidly from there. Once they gave into the attraction, they started dating and within months were deeply in love with each other. Slightly less than a year after getting together they got married, and eighteen months later Hermione was pregnant with Scorpius._

_Hermione was very aware of the irony of her romantic situation. She had left Ron because he wanted to settle down and have children straight away, but less than four years later she was happily married with a baby. The thought of settling down and having a family with Ron had been a terrifying one for Hermione, but doing the same thing with Draco felt completely natural and right._

_..._

"Why is she still dancing with him?" Ginny asked Harry. Hermione and Draco had been dancing together for several minutes and they looked extremely close.

"He's probably still talking about his precious son." Harry said moodily. "Hermione can hardly tell him to bugger off, he's the father of the Beauxbatons champion."

"Poor Hermione." Ginny sighed. "Fancy having to put up with Malfoy. Thank god his son doesn't come here." Harry nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly with his wife.

While Harry and Ginny were discussing how awful it must be for Hermione having to deal with Draco, the pair were arranging a way to sneak Draco into her room for the night. Finishing the dance, Draco released Hermione from his hold and with one final smirk at Harry he exited The Great Hall.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Harry asked as him and Ginny rushed to her side.

"I'm fine." Hermione reassured her former friends. "But I think it's time for me to leave. The band looks like they're going to be on soon."

Harry and Ginny looked towards the stage and grimaced when they noticed the rock group starting to set up their equipment.

"I'm off. Have a happy Christmas." Hermione told Harry and Ginny.

"You, too. See you in the new year." Harry said. While Ginny gave Hermione a quick hug.

Leaving The Great Hall, Hermione headed up to the third floor where she had arranged to meet Draco. By the time she had reached the end of the corridor and the door leading into the Beauxbatons quarters Hermione was beginning to wonder if her husband had gotten lost. Suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around her middle and Draco pulled her into his body.

"Don't do that. You scared me." Hermione scolded.

"Sorry." Draco mumbled, kissing Hermione's neck.

Hermione said the password and together the pair of them stumbled into the common room. Draco barely had time to look at the large room before Hermione was dragging him to her room. Once they entered Hermione's room they locked the door and silenced the room before tumbling onto the large bed together.


	7. Returning to School

The festive period seemed to fly over for Hermione and before she knew it, it was the beginning of January and time for her and Scorpius to return to Hogwarts. Hermione had thoroughly enjoyed the time she had spent with her family, especially her eleven year old daughter Lyra, who she hadn't seen for a couple of months. Leaving Draco and Lyra seemed even harder than it had been at the beginning of the school year, and Hermione was left wishing the tournament was over so she could return home to her family.

After the confrontation at The Yule Ball, Hermione had warned Draco to behave the next time he was at the school. Hermione knew that while Draco may have appeared to be listening, he would still continue to stir things with Harry, he just couldn't help himself when it came to his former adversary. Hermione had also warned her father-in-law to behave when he attended the third task, but like his son Hermione knew Lucius hadn't really listened to her.

Draco had told Lucius about Scorpius befriending Albus and taking Lily to the Yule Ball and Harry's adverse reaction. The older man had loved the fact that his grandson was winding Harry up without having to try. For the rest of the holidays both Draco and Lucius encouraged Scorpius to keep up his friendship with Albus and to pursue his relationship with Lily.

By the time she returned to Hogwarts, Hermione was seriously worried about what would happen when her family would next come into contact with Harry and his family. By the end of January it was time for the second task and Hermione was relieved to find that Draco was coming to the event alone. While her husband could still cause plenty of trouble on his own, he was more likely to behave without Lucius to egg him on and join in with the stirring.

On the morning of the second task, which was taking place in a section of the Forbidden Forest, Hermione had left Scorpius to wait for Draco while she helped with the final preparations. As she was helping to sort out the stands surrounding the forest, Hermione couldn't help but notice the foul mood Harry was in. To be honest her former friend had been in a bad mood since the new year and Hermione couldn't help but wonder if her husband and son weren't responsible for it.

Hermione was right about the reason for Harry's bad mood. Unlike Hermione's peaceful family Christmas, Harry's Christmas had been very stressful. As usual Harry and his family spent Christmas day at The Burrow with the Weasley's. Like all special occasions at the Burrow, all the Weasley siblings were present bringing their spouses and children with them.

The main topics of conversation were the Triwizard Tournament, Hermione's surprising return and Draco and Scorpius unwelcome presence. Everyone was in agreement with talk surrounding the tournament, they were all proud of Albus and had high hopes he could follow in Harry's footsteps and win the tournament.

Hermione's return was gaining a mixed bag of responses. Most of the family were glad to hear she was happy and were looking forward to seeing her at the third task. Molly wasn't impressed by Hermione's return as she still hadn't forgiven the brunette witch for breaking her youngest sons heart. Ron was unsure what to think about the return of the witch he had loved for so long, but he was definitely unhappy to hear she was happily married. Ron's wife, Lavender, was distinctly unimpressed with Hermione's return as she wasn't convinced her husband was entirely over the former Gryffindor bookworm. Despite having two children under the age of ten with Ron, Lavender still wasn't convinced her husband truly loved her.

The entire family's opinions were the same regarding Draco and Scorpius. They were all distinctly unimpressed by the former Death Eater's presence and weren't happy that his son was the Beauxbatons champion. Scorpius' newfound friendship's with Albus and Lily were also proving unpopular among the family.

Both Albus and Lily were told to stay away from the young Malfoy boy but both had refused their families request. Albus had argued that they shouldn't judge Scorpius by his father, just because Draco and Harry hadn't gotten along in school it was no reason for him not to be friends with Scorpius. Lily told her parents she could date whoever she liked, and she had no intention to stop seeing the blond boy she was rapidly falling for.

Since returning to school in the new year, Harry had watched helplessly as his two children continued to mingle with Scorpius. The three of them along with the French girl Imogen, who Albus was dating, spent most of their spare time together much to Harry's frustration.

As he finished making the final preparations to the second task, Harry couldn't help but wish the tournament was over. Then Scorpius and his father could go back to France so he would never have to set eyes on another Malfoy again.

Finishing the preparations Harry started to head back to the school to wish Albus luck and to see who in his family had come for the second task. Harry knew the entire Weasley clan planned on attending the third and final task but Harry was unsure who was attending today.

As Harry entered the school, he noticed Hermione was heading into the room where her school's champion was located. As he headed to Albus' room he wondered which of the Malfoy's would be showing up at today's event, it would be too much to hope for that none of them would show up. When he entered Albus' room and saw exactly who had come to support his son he hoped even more that none of the Malfoy's would be present. Standing next to Albus and encouraging him to sabotage the other champions was his most hot headed brother-in-law, Ron.

While Ron was encouraging his nephew with underhand tactics, Hermione was watching as her son paced the floor in his room nervously.

"Stop worrying, Scorp. He'll be here." Hermione told her son for the third time since she had entered the room and found no sign of her husband.

"What if he isn't?" Scorpius said, continuing to pace the floor.

"He will be." Hermione walked over to her son and stopped him pacing the floor as it was making her nervous. "Has he ever let you down?"

"No." Scorpius shook his head.

"Then he won't now." Hermione reassured her son. "We should get down to the task. I'm sure by the time it begins your father will be here."

Scorpius nodded and let Hermione lead him out of the room and down to the forbidden forest. Once at the Forbidden Forest he stood where the champions were going to start from while Hermione headed to the judges/family stand where she hoped to find Draco.

Upon arrival at the stand Hermione found no sign of Draco, there were five people in the stand but none were her absent husband. A couple Hermione recognised as Novak's parents were sitting quietly at the back of the stand, Professor Polanski and Padma were at the front of the stand discussing the upcoming task while a young man with jet back hair was sitting with his feet propped up on the chair in front of the one he was sitting on. Hermione guessed straight away that the young man was Harry's oldest son, James, who was currently training to become an Auror. She was proved right when the young man stood up and introduced himself.

"You must be Hermione Granger, I'm James Potter." It may have been Hermione imagining things but she could have sworn that James put extra emphasis on her surname.

"It's nice to meet you James." Hermione smiled, deciding she had imagined the emphasis he had put on her surname.

"I see you've met my eldest." Harry said, entering the stand to find James and Hermione talking.

"Yes." Hermione said, turning round and stopping in shock at the sight of Ron standing next to Harry.

"Hello Hermione." Ron said, examining his ex-girlfriend closely. She had aged well and was still very pretty.

"Ron." Hermione said quietly. Hermione had foolishly forgotten there might be a chance she would run into her ex.

"We should take our seats, we're about to begin." Harry said to the small handful of people in the stand.

As everyone settled down, Ron made a show of looking around the stand. Both Harry and Hermione were aware of who he was looking for.

"At least the Ferret's not here." Ron announced sitting down next to James.

"You would have thought that after twenty years you could have come up with something new." A voice from the entrance of the stand said.

Everyone but Hermione turned to identify the owner of the voice, she didn't have to move to know her husband had just made a dramatic entrance. As Draco casually made his way to a seat on the front row, Hermione could hear Ron muttering curses under his breath. When Draco settled in the chair nearest to Hermione, she could clearly see the smirk on his face.

Once everyone in the stand was settled, Padma got to her feet to explain the newest task.

"Welcome to the second Triwizard Task. This task is a treasure hunt, set in the Forbidden Forest. The first champion to return with their school flag will be the winner." Padma held up three examples of the flags the champions were looking for. "Part of the Forest has been sectioned off, but you will still likely encounter some magical creatures and obstacles. In front of each champion is a piece of parchment with some directions, using magic to follow the directions you will find your next set of directions and so on until you reach the flag. When you have your flag, you must return to the starting point. Is everyone clear?"

As Padma was talking, Hermione had noticed that Scorpius was checking the stand to see if Draco had arrived. She knew at once when he realised his father was present as his face broke out into a large smile and he suddenly appeared much more relaxed.

"As you can see, the stands surrounding the forest have two tiers. Feel free to head up to the top tier to see if you can spot any action from below." Padma told the assembled crowd before turning back to the champions. "The task begins when I blow my whistle, good luck."

The moment Padma blew her whistle the three champions darted forward to read their directions. Almost immediately Albus and Scorpius had their wands out and were entering the Forbidden Forest. Novak was slightly behind the other two but he eventually followed leaving the spectators with nothing to do but wait and see who emerged triumphant.


	8. Tension During the Second Task

**A/N - Instead of focusing on the second task, this chapter concentrates on what happens in the stands. I hope that people won't be too dissapointed but the first task was described in detail and the third one will also be described in detail.**

**A few reviewers have asked when Lyra is going to appear. The youngest Malfoy will make her appearance in chapter ten as will her grandfather.**

* * *

Hermione had been dreading the start of the task as she knew that once there was nothing to watch that tensions in the stand would become unbearable. The situation had of course been made worse by Ron's presence at the task. Draco and Ron had never gotten along and Hermione doubted that anything would have changed in the twenty years that they hadn't had contact with each other.

The three champions had barely been gone five minutes before Ron started moaning quietly about Draco's presence.

"Do you have something to say, Weasley?" Draco snapped, his grey eyes flashing dangerously.

"No." Ron muttered looking slightly intimidated by the former Death Eater.

"Then kindly shut up." Draco said, turning back to the front of the stand.

Ron glared at the back of Draco's blond head but didn't quite have the nerve to say anything to him. An awkward silence descended in the stand after Ron and Draco's brief stand-off A couple of times Hermione felt Ron watching her and thought he was going to speak but he didn't, instead he remained silent and carried on glaring at the back of Draco's head. After a while people started to quietly talk amongst themselves, but Ron continued to shoot looks at Draco despite being in conversation with Harry.

The task hadn't been going for fifteen minutes when shouting was heard over the other side of the forest. Everyone in the stand strained to see what was happening, wondering if one of the champions were in trouble. If they got into trouble they were supposed to shoot red sparks into the air but no red spark had been seen. They got their answer a few minutes later, when Lily came rushing into the stand to get Harry.

"Professor Longbottom sent me to get you, two seventh years are fighting and throwing hexes at each other." Lily told her father.

"I'll not be long. I'll go and deal with them." Harry said, annoyed to be disturbed at a time when he should be focused on Albus.

When Lily had entered the stand, Draco used the opportunity to get a good look at the girl his son was falling for. He had seen her briefly at the Yule Ball but had deliberately steered clear of his son on the night of the dance so he didn't embarrass him. Draco could see what Scorpius saw in her, she was a very pretty girl. Lily felt Draco's eyes on her and turned to look at him.

"Mr Malfoy." Lily said politely as she walked up to the blond man. "I'm Lily Potter."

"It's nice to meet you. Scorp's done nothing but talk about you since Christmas." Draco said smiling at Lily who was blushing furiously. He immediately liked the girl's braveness, she didn't seem bothered that she was talking to a former Death Eater.

"Get away from my niece, Malfoy." Ron hissed, moving to stand between Draco and Lily. "And why you're at it tell your little brat to keep his paws off her."

Draco raised an eyebrow at Ron, unsure of how to respond to the fuming redhead. Before he could conjure a response, Lily was standing in front of her uncle looking furious.

"I've told you all before, it's none of your business who I go out with." Lily stormed at her uncle. "Honestly, you're so embarrassing."

Lily gave Ron a scathing look before turning back to Draco. "Sorry." She said softly, before she left the stand eager to get away from Ron.

"Nice one, Uncle Ron." James muttered, going after his sister to check she was okay.

By this point everyone was staring at Ron, who had turned bright red. "I'm only looking out for her. She deserves better than a snotty little inbred Malfoy." Ron said forcefully, before sitting back down silently fuming.

Draco looked like he wanted to punch Ron, instead he settled for sitting back down and ignoring the redhead. Hermione meanwhile was finding it hard to hear Ron arguing with her husband and insulting her son. Needing to get away from the tension, Hermione headed to the upper tier so she could be alone. Draco watched his upset wife leave the stand, he wanted to go and comfort her, but he knew she wanted to keep their relationship quiet for Scorpius' sake so he waited until Ron was distracted before going after Hermione.

Arriving on the top tier of the stand, Draco found Hermione leaning against the edge and staring out over the forest. Walking up behind her he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.

"Are you okay?" Draco asked.

"Yes, I left before I said something I would regret to Ron." Hermione said.

"Sorry. I know I promised to behave." Draco said, even though he hadn't caused any trouble.

"You're not the problem. It seems that Ron hasn't grown up in the last twenty years." Hermione said, relaxing in her husband's arms.

The couple stood in silence for several minutes, enjoying the fact they didn't have to hide their relationship at the moment. Hermione however was constantly checking that there was no-one on the top tiers of the surrounding stands who might spot them together.

"Why were you late this morning?" Hermione suddenly asked, breaking the comfortable silence. As she was scanning the forest looking for any signs of her son, she suddenly remembered how anxious he had been this morning.

"I was planning on bringing Lyra with me as I know how much you're missing her." Draco said. "But she's coming down with the flu so I made her stay at home."

"I would have loved to have seen her." Hermione said. "Did she go back to school or stay at home?"

"She stayed at home. I called mother and she's staying with her until I return tonight." Draco explained.

Lyra was in her first year of school at Beauxbatons. Unlike Hogwarts the French school wasn't a full time boarding school, students were free to go home for the weekend if they so desired. Scorpius often took up the opportunity to spend the weekend at home and it looked like his little sister would be following in his footsteps.

"She's probably staying at home because she knows you'll spoil her rotten." Hermione said, her daughter was a total daddy's girl.

"Of course, I'm going to spoil her." Draco stated.

"You should be getting back, the last thing we need is Ron noticing we're both gone and coming looking for us." Hermione sighed.

"Would it be so bad if everyone found out? Scorp's more than proved his ability after the first task." Draco said, letting Hermione out of his embrace.

"It wouldn't be but Harry and the Weasley's have reacted really badly to you and Scorpius. I've still got a couple more months to stay here and I really don't want to deal with Harry hating me for that long." Hermione admitted, turning round to face her husband. There was nothing she would like better than to come clean but she wasn't willing to deal with Harry's attitude for months.

"Okay, I'll be off and I promise to behave." Draco said. He had no problem agreeing to keep their relationship a secret as long as Hermione was happy and they didn't have to deal with the idiot's she used to call friends.

Hermione gave Draco a quick peck and watched her husband head back down to the main stand. Turning back around she scanned the top of the forest again before looking around the other stands. Hermione watched as Harry came back to the stand five minutes later. She also heard the bickering that started a few minutes later. While she couldn't make out what was being said she could hear both Harry and Ron regularly shouting and speaking loudly while every now and again she heard the drawling voice of her husband.

"Are you alright?" A voice behind her, tore Hermione's attention from the bickering below her.

Turning round, surprised she hadn't heard anyone entering the top tier of the stand, Hermione found James looking at her strangely.

"I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" Hermione said, turning and staring out over the forest.

"It must be hard." James said, moving to stand beside Hermione. "Having your former friends arguing with your husband and insulting your son."

"How did you know?" Hermione whirled round in shock to face James.

"Research." James shrugged before starting to explain. "The family made such a big deal about Al and Lily being friends with Scorpius, I decided to find out if the family were as bad as they were saying."

"How did you do that?" Hermione asked.

"My aunt Fleur's sister, Gabrielle, works at the French Ministry. I asked her for all the information she could give me on the Malfoy family. Obviously your marriage to Draco was mentioned in the information she gave me." James explained.

"What conclusions did you come to?" Hermione asked, curious to know what Harry's son thought of her family.

"I decided my family is stuck in the past. It's obvious your husband is a very different person to the boy who was a Death Eater." James said. "You wouldn't have married him otherwise."

"Why didn't you tell anyone about me?" Hermione asked curious as to why James had kept her secret.

"It's none of my business." James said. "I'm sure you have your reasons, and seeing the way my family is behaving I don't blame you for not telling them."

"Thank you." Hermione smiled at James. "They'll probably find out after the tournament."

"You're going to tell them?" James asked.

"I don't know, but my whole family will be at the last task. They're bound to find out." Hermione said. After recent events she was not looking forward to the Weasley's discovering who her family was.

"Good luck." James said ruefully. "You'll need it."

"Do you think they'll take it that badly?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, as I said before my family are stuck in the past. For a bunch of people who fought against prejudice they're not against being prejudice themselves." James said, slightly bitterly.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, sensing there was some tension between James and his family.

"My girlfriend, ex-girlfriend. She's a Slytherin, as were both her parents, they were both involved with the war on the dark side. Despite them changing and abandoning their beliefs about blood, my family couldn't get over the fact they were on the other side during the war." James said. "They hated Diana, and did everything they could to make our lives uncomfortable."

"What happened?" Hermione asked, feeling sorry for James.

"Diana couldn't cope with it anymore. Before she came back to school, she broke up with me. She said it wasn't fair to be driving a wedge between me and my family."

"She's here at school?" Hermione asked.

"Yes. She's a seventh year, she's sitting in the next stand." James said sadly.

"What did her parents think about the two of you?" Hermione asked.

"They're were fine with it. My whole family kept telling me the Nott's and Parkinson's were bad news but her parents are really nice." James said.

"Diana is Pansy and Theo's daughter?" Hermione was quite surprised by James' choice of girlfriend. She knew the couple had a daughter, she could remember Narcissa mentioning it about a year before she had Scorpius.

"Do you still love her?" Hermione asked though she was pretty sure she knew the answer.

"Yes. I never stopped." James sighed.

"If you want my advice, you should fight for her. If your parents truly love you then they'll want you to be happy and will accept her." Hermione said wisely. "Trust me, I went through the same thing with Draco."

"Was it his parents or yours that didn't approve?" James asked.

"Draco's father, Lucius. He was furious when he found out we were married, but he realised that if he wanted a relationship with Draco and to be given a chance to get to know his grandson he would have to accept me." Hermione explained, remembering how hard it had been to get her father-in-law to accept her. "It took a long time, but we get on fine now."

"What if my family are unwilling to change?" James said. He honestly couldn't see his stubborn family changing their viewpoint on Diana. "It's mainly Gran who protests about her but everyone follows along to keep her happy."

"I'm sure they will eventually accept her." Hermione reassured James. "You just have to decide if Diana's worth it and if you truly love her."

"Thank you." James smiled at Hermione. She was the first person who had backed up his gut instinct to fight for Diana.

"You're welcome." Hermione said. "I guess I should head back down, see if everyone is still alive."

James laughed lightly and the two of them descended the stairs and headed back into the main part of the stand. When they arrived they found Harry and Ron huddled in the corner, tending to a bloody nose of Ron's. The pair were shooting dirty looks at Draco while the blond sat looking totally unruffled and relaxed.

"Is everything okay?" Hermione asked, looking at the three men.

"Yes. It's fine now." Harry said. "Ron got a bit carried away and threw a curse at Malfoy."

"Then how come it's Uncle Ron with the bloody nose?" James asked as Hermione covertly checked for any sign of damage to her husband.

"Because the idiot still can't aim properly." Draco smirked. "His spell hit one of the beams in the stand and it rebounded back into his face."

James snorted, trying not to laugh while Hermione turned so that Ron and Harry couldn't see the slight smile on her face.

"It's not funny." Ron glared at his nephew. "I need medical attention, now."

"Here, let me." Hermione said, moving to stand next to Ron. Hermione quickly siphoned off the blood surrounding Ron's nose and quickly fixed any damage.

"Thanks, Hermione." Ron said, smiling at his former friend.

"You're welcome." Hermione said, before returning to her seat.

Hermione had no sooner returned to her seat when red sparks erupted from the forest close to where they were sitting. The entire stand stood to see who which of the champions had forfeited the challenge and called for help. Everyone watched as Neville and another Professor entered the forest to help the fallen champion. Five minutes later they emerged carrying the Durmstrang champion, Novak, between them.

Professor Polanski and Novak's parents quickly left the stand to go and check on the injured boy, while everyone else awaited the exit of the other two champions.

Another tense ten minutes passed before a figure started to emerge from the trees. Everyone waited with baited breath to see who it was as the figure emerged into the light. A huge cheer erupted around the forest when everyone recognised the dark head of the Hogwarts champion, Albus.

While Harry and James were clapping and cheering, Ron turned and shot a smug smirk in Draco's direction. Draco ignored the redhead, instead he focused on his son who had followed Albus out of the trees almost immediately.

"We have a winner." Padma announced. "The winner of the second task is Albus Potter."

Hermione smiled to herself as she watched Albus celebrate with Scorpius down at the edge of the forest, her son looked just as happy as Albus that his friend had won the task. Neither Harry or Ron looked as happy as they watched Albus and Scorpius, in their opinion the sooner the Malfoy's returned home the better.


	9. Confessions and Future Plans

After the disaster of the second task The Weasley's, led by Molly, were even more determined to stop Albus and Lily associating with Scorpius. The last thing they wanted was for Draco to become a regular part of their lives. They also wanted to avoid a repeat of the disaster they had nearly suffered with James when he got involved with Diana Nott. Harry had suggested they just bide their time and in a few months Scorpius would be out of their lives, but Ginny had insisted they stop any friendships from developing further.

Harry had finally agreed to deal with things her way. Harry knew that just telling his children to stay away from Scorpius wouldn't work, they had tried that over Christmas but it had had no effect. Ginny had sent him newspaper articles about the Malfoy family's part in the war and told him to show them to Lily and Albus. Hopefully once Albus and Lily saw with their own eyes what sort of family Scorpius was from they would think twice about continuing to associate with him.

Three weeks after the second task, Ginny had sent Harry enough articles that he felt the time had come to put his wife's plan into motion. Putting all the articles into a folder, he called Albus and Lily to his office one Sunday morning.

"If this is about Scorpius, we already told you that you can't dictate who our friends are." Albus said the moment him and his sister were settled in Harry's office.

"That entire family is trouble. I know you like him, but I'm only trying to protect the pair of you." Harry said.

"What, like you did to James." Lily said. "You helped him to a broken heart."

"We only did what was best for your brother. The same as were only doing what's best for you two." Harry said, trying to make his children understand where the family was coming from.

"No you're not." Albus said shaking his head at his father. "You're judging Scorpius by his parents, just like you did to Diana."

"People like that don't change, Al. The Malfoy's and the Nott's only care about keeping their bloodline pure and making sure their children grow up to be pureblood snobs." Harry insisted.

"Scorpius is not a snob." Lily said, offended on her boyfriend's behalf.

"Really, I bet he's made sure you know what a huge house he lives in and how much money he has." Harry sneered, remembering how much Draco used to show off while they were at school.

Harry couldn't help but let his dislike of Draco appear as he spoke to his children, while he may have wanted to approach things differently with Albus and Lily but he was just as set against them forming a bond with a Malfoy as the rest of his family.

"Actually no he hasn't." Albus said. "He told me about his house because I asked him about it."

"And he never brags about the fact his family's rich." Lily added.

"Fine." Harry sighed, knowing it was no use arguing with his children any longer. "But I still don't want you anywhere near that family. Maybe this will make you realise that the Malfoy's are bad news."

Harry passed the folder to Albus and gave the pair of them permission to leave. Intrigued by what their father had given them, Lily and Albus decided to head outside to investigate the contents of the folder. Settling down by the Black Lake, they opened the folder and examined the articles inside.

Fifteen minutes later they had read all about the Malfoy's involvement in the war. They had read about Lucius being sentenced to five years in Azkaban while Draco and Narcissa had been acquitted. Ginny had deliberately included the articles that made it sound as though Draco and Narcissa had both deserved to go to prison and it was a major miscarriage of justice that they were released free of charge.

"What do you think?" Albus asked his sister.

"I think this is all ancient history." Lily said, placing the article she had been looking at down on the grass beside her. "The most recent article is fifteen years old, and even that is a tiny piece about Scorpius' grandfather being released from Azkaban."

"But what about everything they say about Scorpius' dad? That he was the youngest ever Death Eater and that he let them into the school." Albus questioned.

"That was years ago, Al. I met him at the second task, he seemed really nice." Lily said. "Maybe we should talk to Scorp about this."

"Now's our opportunity, he's heading this way." Albus said, nodding to where Scorpius was approaching them.

Lily hurriedly put all the articles back into the folder before the blond reached where they were sitting.

"Hi, guys." Scorpius said, plonking himself down beside Lily. "Why are you two looking so serious?" He asked, noticing the sombre atmosphere.

"Dad called us into his office earlier, trying to convince us not to be your friends." Albus explained.

Scorpius nodded but didn't say anything, he was waiting to see what Albus and Lily had to say first. He wanted to remain friends with Albus and keep on seeing Lily, but he was aware that there was a lot of history between their families, most of it bad, and it was a possibility that they wouldn't want to remain friends with him.

"We told him to mind his own business, of course." Lily said, smiling softly at Scorpius.

"Then he gave us this." Albus said, handing the folder of newspaper articles to his friend.

Scorpius quietly looked through the articles before he shut the folder and handed it back to Albus.

"I suppose this means we're not friends anymore." Scorpius said sadly.

"Of course we are." Albus insisted as Lily nodded agreeing with her brother. "We were just hoping we could talk."

"What about? The articles are all true, they just don't tell the entire story." Scorpius shrugged.

"What is the entire story?" Lily asked softly. She could tell Scorpius was hurt by the articles and she didn't want to upset him further.

"Dad never wanted to be a Death Eater, he was forced into it. It was either take the mark or watch Gran die before being killed himself." Scorpius said quietly. He knew the story of his father's past but he disliked to think about how much he had suffered.

"That's awful." Lily said, grabbing Scorpius' hand and holding it tightly. Scorpius smiled softly at Lily grateful for the comfort.

"So he was only on the dark side by force." Albus said. Scorpius nodded, pleased his friends were being understanding.

"I'm not saying my dad was an angel when he was younger. Growing up he believed in all that pureblood crap that Grandpa told him and he wasn't always the nicest person, but he's changed." Scorpius explained. He didn't want Albus and Lily to hate his father, as Draco was very important to him.

"When you say he used to believe in all the pureblood nonsense, does that mean he doesn't anymore?" Albus asked curiously.

"I should hope not." Scorpius laughed. "Or me and my sister would be huge disappointments to him."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked, pleased that Scorpius had brightened up.

"I mean me and Lyra aren't purebloods, we're half-bloods." Scorpius explained.

Albus and Lily wore identical looks of shock, their family had told them that the Malfoy's were pureblood's who judged people on the blood status. Scorpius chuckled at his friend's shocked reaction's to his blood status, obviously they had been told that he was a pureblood.

"My mum's a muggleborn." Scorpius said, laughing properly as Albus and Lily looked even more surprised. "Can you keep a secret?" Scorpius asked, eying up Lily and Albus trying to decide if they could be trusted.

"Of course." Lily said. Scorpius looked at Albus who nodded, agreeing with his sister.

"You can't tell anyone this." Scorpius warned, looking around to make sure there was no one is ear shot. "My mum is Hermione Granger."

Lily and Albus sat with their mouths open in shock before Albus found his voice.

"You mean your headmistress. The same Hermione Granger that was best friends with our dad and uncle at school." Albus said, still shocked by Scorpius' revelation.

"Yes." Scorpius nodded. "But no-one can find out until after the tournament. Mum doesn't want people saying I only got picked because of her, or that she's favouring me in the judging."

"That's a good idea." Albus said, thinking over what Scorpius had just said. "I wish I could have entered without people knowing who my dad was."

"It must be a nightmare." Scorpius sympathised, he had witnessed the nasty rumours surrounding Albus' participation in the tournament.

"I've told you Al, just ignore the rumours. You were great in the first task and you definitely proved yourself in the second one." Lily said, wanting her brother to believe in himself.

At Lily's words Scorpius and Albus looked at each other, exchanging a sly look.

"What's going on? What am I missing?" Lily asked.

Albus and Scorpius looked at each other before Albus spoke. "I won the second task because Scorp let me. When we were heading back to the finish line, we ran into each other. We walked to the edge of the forest together but Scorp said I should go first."

"Why? If you had won the second task, you would have had an advantage going into the final one." Lily turned to Scorpius curious about his motives.

"I would, but this way me and Al will start the last task as equals." Scorpius said. "Then we can see who's the best."

"That'll be me." Albus said cockily, as he lay down in the grass.

"Don't count on it, Al." Scorpius laughed. "I'm very talented."

"Such ego's." Lily laughed.

Lily and Scorpius lay back onto the grass like Albus, and the trio spent the next ten minutes wondering about the third task and playfully arguing about who would win. Looking at his watch, Albus suddenly shot up.

"Damn, I'm supposed to be meeting Imogen. I'm nearly five minutes late." Albus declared, brushing grass off his trousers.

"You better get going, she's got a wicked temper. She can be scary if she's mad at you." Scorpius said, laughing as Albus took off running towards the school.

"How do you know about Imogen's bad temper?" Lily asked. She tried to sound innocent but Scorpius could hear the jealously in her voice.

"We did a transfiguration project together last year, she kept getting mad when I showed up late to work on it." Scorpius said, pleased that Lily was jealous.

"Why were you late?" Lily asked.

"Quidditch. She always wanted to meet the same night as Quidditch practice, so by the time I was finished practice and had gotten changed I was late." Scorpius explained.

Lily nodded and settled back into the grass, closing her eyes as she lay in the afternoon sunlight. Scorpius rolled over so he was lying propped up on his side, looking down at the beautiful redheaded girl beside him. Scorpius carefully traced the small smattering of freckles on Lily's face with the tip of his finger. Lily opened her eyes when she felt the light touch of Scorpius' fingers on her smooth skin.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked, looking up into Scorpius' light grey eyes.

"You're really pretty." Scorpius said, causing Lily to blush.

Smiling at Lily's shyness, Scorpius moved his head so his lips were just over hers. Lily looked up at Scorpius, her heart pounding loudly as the gorgeous blond boy leant down slightly and touched his soft lips to hers. Lily closed her eyes and lost herself in the feeling of Scorpius gently kissing her. When they pulled apart reluctantly Lily sighed, wishing Scorpius attended the same school as her.

"What's wrong?" Scorpius asked, sensing Lily's melancholy.

"Nothing. I just wished you were here permanently." Lily admitted. "I'm going to miss you, when you go home."

"I'm going to miss you too. But we can still keep in contact, if you want." Scorpius suggested, hoping Lily would agree to his idea.

"I'd like that. I'm not sure mum and dad will though." Lily said.

"Does it matter?" Scorpius asked and Lily quickly shook her head. "Good. Besides, I only have a year left at school. Then I can come back."

"You would come back for me?" Lily asked, shocked that Scorpius would leave his home for her.

"Yes. Dad's business may be based in France but he has an office in London, I could always work there." Scorpius explained. He had always planned on working with Draco in the family company and whatever country he lived in he would do just that.

"What if we split up before you finish school?" Lily questioned.

"Are you dumping me?" Lily laughed and shook her head. "If we do then I'll just stay in France." Scorpius shrugged.

"I prefer your plan of coming here." Lily grinned.

"So do I." Scorpius said, bending to kiss Lily again.

As the young couple lay kissing in the grass by the Black Lake, they didn't notice the figure watching them from the castle. Hermione smiled at the sight of her son and Lily, it looked like their romance was progressing nicely. As she turned to head back to her room, Hermione wondered what Harry and The Weasley's would think if things got serious between the pair. Hermione knew that Scorpius was seriously falling for Lily and from what she had seen of Harry's daughter, the feeling seemed to be mutual.


	10. The Third Task

The third and final task took place the first weekend of March. The task was actually taking place inside the castle, so first thing in the morning the school was emptied and the students were wandering around the school grounds wondering what was happening in the school.

The point of the task was to retrieve the Triwizard Cup that had been situated in the Astronomy Tower. Using both the castle's magic and magic created by the Professor's the school was transformed into a more maze like structure. Enchantments were used so that the existing corridors and stairs didn't always lead to where they had before, making sure you couldn't just use any existing knowledge of the building to locate the Astronomy Tower.

Harry was struggling with his spells and cursing loudly, as he tried to enchanted a stair case, when Hermione appeared behind him.

"Are you okay Harry?" Hermione asked tentatively.

"I'm fine." Harry sighed, still not getting the spell to work properly. "I can't wait until this tournament is over."

"Is it the stress of being the hosting school or something else that's bothering you?" Hermione asked, she thought her son was the main reason Harry was looking forward to the end of the tournament.

"It is a lot more stressful hosting than I thought. But the main problem is the Malfoy boy." Harry said, finally getting the spell he was casting to work properly. "The little worm keeps hanging around Al and Lily."

"He's a good kid, Harry. You should give him a chance and not judge him off the past actions of his father." Hermione said snappily, turning on her heel and walking away from her former friend.

Hermione left Harry staring after her in shock, as she headed out of the castle and towards the tents where the champions and their families were waiting for the start of the final task. Harry wasn't the only one wishing for the end of the tournament, Hermione was also looking forward to getting back to normal. She was getting sick of Harry and his digs against her family, she actually hadn't expected Harry to be so resentful towards Draco as directly after the war he had been quite understanding of her husband's situation. Clearly something had changed with Harry over the years, as he and his family seemed unprepared to believe that people could change.

Arriving at the tent Hermione was immediately calmed by the presence of her entire family. Even Lucius was a welcome sight, despite his ability to able to annoy her without uttering a single word.

"Mum." A petite girl with long light brown hair ran to Hermione and gave the witch a hug.

"Hi, Lyra." Hermione said, embracing her daughter. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you, too. But I've been doing really well in all my classes." Lyra beamed. While Scorpius was very much like his father Lyra was more like Hermione, both academically and in looks.

Hermione wondered whether anyone would connect her with Lyra one they saw her. While Scorpius was the spitting image of his father, Lyra looked incredibly like Hermione. The only difference was their hair, while Hermione's hair was curly and had been bushy in her youth, Lyra's hair was poker straight like the rest of the family.

"That's great." Hermione told her daughter, before she turned to face her son. "Are you ready?"

"Yes." Scorpius nodded quickly. He was a lot more nervous today as his whole family was present and he wanted to make them proud.

"You'll be fine, Scorp." Draco reassured his son as he noticed he was a lot twitchier than before the other tasks.

"The task will be starting soon." Hermione said. "You should all go and take your places."

The whole family hugged Scorpius and wished him look before starting to leave the tent.

"Wait." Hermione called, stopping everyone in their tracks. "I don't want any trouble today. Chances are the entire Weasley clan will be here, so I want you all to behave." Hermione looked pointedly at her husband and father-in-law.

"Malfoy's always behave." Lucius said, giving Hermione a smirk. Lucius was aware that his mere presence would cause trouble, he wouldn't actually have to do anything.

"Make sure you do." Hermione warned.

"Don't worry, dear. I'll keep them under control." Narcissa said. "If The Weasley's want to cause trouble that's up to them, we're better than that."

Hermione smiled, satisfied that Narcissa would make sure there was no trouble. Hermione knew that her mother-in-law despised people making a scene and embarrassing her. Hermione finally let her family go and take their seats, satisfied that if there was trouble it wouldn't be from them.

Leaving Hermione and Scorpius in the tent, the Malfoy family headed to the stands which were starting to fill up rapidly. As the four Malfoy's entered the appropriate stand they noticed nearly half the box was filled with the red heads of Weasley's. Unfortunately the Weasley's had settled nearest to the entrance, meaning the Malfoy's had to walk through them to get to their seats. As the family walked to the seats, most of the Weasley's glared at their former enemies.

"Why is everyone staring?" Lyra whispered, moving closer into Draco's side.

"Just ignore them, Princess." Draco said, placing his arm around his daughter's shoulder.

"Some people just have no manners, Lyra." Lucius announced loudly, as he sank down into his seat.

A couple of stares and a few mutters came from the direction of the Weasley's, but they had also been warned by Harry to be on their best behaviour so no confrontation took place.

The two families ignored each other for the next five minutes, talking quietly amongst themselves. A few minutes after the Malfoy's had arrived the family of the Durmstrang champion arrived in the stand. Not five minutes later the champions emerged from their tents and stood in front of the school awaiting the final task.

Each of the heads had a final word with their champions before entering the box. Hermione exchanged smiles with a few of the Weasley siblings and tried to avoid meeting Ron's gaze as she made her way to her seat. As she sat down Hermione snuck a quick smile at Lyra, who had been told not to reveal Hermione's identity before the task. Lyra smiled back and settled back in her seat between her father and grandfather to watch her older brother.

"Where's James?" Harry asked after he had surveyed his family's side of the stand and noticed his missing son.

"He said he had something to do." Ginny told her husband, she was clearly annoyed that her eldest son had disappeared.

"He better be back soon." Harry muttered.

As he turned around he spotted the Malfoy family for the first time, while he had been expecting Draco and possibly Narcissa he was unprepared for the sight of Lucius sitting casually in the stand. Harry stared at the older wizard in shock for several minutes, he knew Lucius had only spent five years in Azkaban but he had expected the wizard to look a bit more worn down. Instead the man looked very similar to how he had always looked, his hair may have been more grey than blond but he still looked physically fit. Harry idly wondered if the cane he carried was still a prop or if the former Death Eater actually needed it now.

Lucius had been aware of Harry's studying of him but instead of saying anything he merely raised his eyebrow at the younger wizard causing him to look away embarrassed. As Harry looked away from Lucius his eyes feel on the girl sitting between him and Draco. Clearly she was part of the family but Harry was shocked by her appearance, unlike the rest of her family she had light brown hair and big brown eyes. There was something vaguely familiar about the girl but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

For the first time all tournament, Harry began to wonder about Draco's wife and why she hadn't made an appearance. He knew the blond was married because he wore a wedding ring on his left hand. All thoughts of Draco's mystery wife and the familiar looking girl slipped from Harry's head as suddenly James appeared in the stand.

"Sorry I'm late." James said.

"Where have you been?" Ginny scolded her eldest son, forcing him to take his seat.

"Fighting for the woman I love." James said, catching Hermione's eye and giving her a sly wink.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked warily.

"I've just been to see Diana. I asked her to marry me and she said yes." James smiled causing uproar amongst his family.

While the Weasley's were all shouting and arguing the Malfoy's just looked on, totally appalled by the family's lack of manners.

"It's time to begin the task." Padma said, also appalled by the family's behaviour. "Perhaps you can deal with your personal issues at a later time."

"Sorry Padma." Harry apologised for his family and took his seat.

With a disapproving look, Padma stood up and got the crowd's attention. "Welcome to the final task of the Triwizard Tournament. Inside the school is the Triwizard Cup, the first champion to reach the cup will be the winner. Once touched the cup will automatically, transport the winner back to the front of the school and end the task." Padma explained. "This task is not as simple as it sounds, the school has being magically transformed so there will be plenty of tests awaiting the champions. Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy currently have the same points from the previous tasks so will enter the building together, Novak Kostas will enter five minutes later. Good luck, everyone."

Albus and Scorpius stood by the doors ready to enter. When Padma blew her whistle, the double doors swung open and the two boys entered, the doors swinging shut behind them.

Once the doors had swung shut, the school was fairly dark so both Scorpius and Albus got out their wands and lit them. Looking around what they saw bore little resemblance the entrance hall at Hogwarts. Directly in front of them were two twisted staircases instead of one big one.

"I suppose it's time we split up." Scorpius said, eager to get going. "Good Luck, Al."

"You too." Albus said. "May the best man win."

Scorpius and Albus grinned at each other for a minute before setting off up different staircases, Scorpius took the left one while Albus took the right one.

Walking up the stairs, Scorpius stayed alert for any potential trouble. So far everything was running smoothly, if you didn't count the fact that the stairs were crooked and seemed to go on for miles. What felt like hours after starting to climb, Scorpius came to a landing. He stood for a while, debating whether to carry on up the stairs or to get off on this floor and try to find another staircase leading upwards.

Before deciding which way to go Scorpius used his lit wand to try and see how many more stairs there were, unfortunately it was too dark for him to see much further up the staircase. Deciding to take a chance Scorpius moved off the staircase and onto the landing. He had no sooner left the stairs then they disappeared, a wall appearing in their place.

"Can't go back that way." Scorpius muttered to himself as he started to walk along the corridor.

Coming to the end of the short corridor Scorpius was faced with two choices. Go to his left and into a hallway which looked to have a floor covered in some sort of swamp or go to his right and enter a corridor that was in total blackness. Scorpius figured the most appealing way would be the swamp corridor, at least you could see where you were going. But his gut was telling him he needed to go the other way.

Hermione was always saying that magic was partly instinctual so he decided to follow his mother's advice and go with his instincts. Before he stepped into the corridor he created a protection shield around his body, as he couldn't see down the corridor he had no idea what could be waiting for him.

As soon as he entered the corridor, Scorpius could hear the sound of scuttling creatures on the floor. Holding his lit wand up had no effect on the darkness surrounding him, so Scorpius had to travel the corridor blind. He walked slowly as not to disturb the scuttling creatures, a few times he felt them knock against his protective shield but they didn't break through. Carefully Scorpius made his way through the corridor, suddenly emerging on the other side with no warning.

Scorpius decided to keep the protective shield as he quickly continued on his way. Scorpius continued to follow the maze of corridors looking for some stairs, while he wasn't sure where in the school the cup was logic dictated it would be somewhere near the top of the castle. At the end of a long corridor Scorpius came across some stairs, but when he looked closely at them he realised they weren't real it was only an optical illusion. Swiping his hand through the stairs they shimmered and disappeared, revealing a red door.

Scorpius decided that since the door was hidden it was worth an exploration. Reaching for the handle, Scorpius went to open the door only to find it locked.

"Alohamora." He called before trying to open the door again. When that didn't work he decided to try a more direct approach. "Bombarda."

When blasting the door open failed as well, Scorpius took a closer look at the door. Shining his wand on the door he found a series of rune markings near the handle. Scorpius realised it was a puzzle that needed solving before the door would open. Sitting down in front of the door, Scorpius started to solve the runes, touching his wand to them in the right order. When he touched the last rune marking, the door swung open revealing a staircase.

Scorpius checked the staircase thoroughly before starting to climb up the winding stairs. Reaching the top of the stairs, Scorpius walked down a narrow corridor before once again coming to a choice of two directions. Scorpius examined both corridors, one looked perfectly normal while the other one was filled with overgrown vines. Like before Scorpius acted on gut instinct and his instinct said there was something about the plain corridor that wasn't quite right. Stepping into the plain corridor, Scorpius soon discovered what the problem was as the walls started to rapidly close in on him.

Rushing back the way he had come, Scorpius narrowly avoided being crushed by the walls. Once he was out of the corridor the walls returned to their normal place. Scorpius was sure he needed to be down that corridor he just had to figure out a way to get through the corridor without the walls crushing him. He could see the other end and knew there was no way he could run fast enough to avoid being squashed.

The only thing he could think of was flying through the corridor. Scorpius decided to summon a broom from the school's supply. Once the broom had arrived he mounted it and steeled himself to fly through the corridor. Once her was ready he kicked off and flew as fast as the broom would go along the corridor that immediately started to narrow the moment he entered it. Reaching the other end of the corridor, Scorpius just managed to escape before the walls crashed together.

Getting off the broom and propping it up against the wall Scorpius carried on along the new corridor he had entered. After a couple of minutes he came to yet another staircase. This once was very narrow and didn't look to go very far. Deciding it was safe, Scorpius began to climb the narrow staircase.

Reaching the top he found himself face to face with a portrait of a witch. He recognised the woman from his history lessons, it was Anne Boleyn one of the wives of the muggle king Henry VIII.

"I'll let you past if you answer a riddle." The portrait told Scorpius. Scorpius nodded, he had a feeling he was nearing the cup.

"Feed me and I live, give me drink and I die. What am I?"

Scorpius thought carefully for a while, his logical brain working out the possible answers.

"Fire." Scorpius answered cautiously. "If you feed it wood it lives but if you give it water it dies."

"Correct." The portrait said, swinging open and revealing a short corridor. Scorpius could see another portrait hanging on the wall at the other end of the corridor, obviously he had to answer more riddles.

Walking along the corridor Scorpius once again came to a portrait of a woman he recognised from his history lessons. This time the witch was Morgan LeFay, one of the most famous and powerful witches to ever have lived.

"Have you got a riddle for me?" Scorpius asked.

"Yes." The woman in the portrait smiled slightly. "What always runs but never walks. Often murmurs, never talks. Has a bed but never sleeps. Has a mouth but never eats?"

Scorpius puzzled over the riddle for some time. Obviously the answer wasn't some sort of living creature, but it was probably not an inanimate object either. Scorpius sat for nearly five minutes before he had the answer.

"A river." Scorpius said.

"Correct." The portrait said swinging open to reveal yet another short corridor with another portrait hanging on the wall.

This time Scorpius didn't recognise the woman in the portrait so he looked around the frame to see if her name was written down anywhere. Finally he spotted a small name in the bottom right corner, Rowena Ravenclaw. The woman was one of Hogwarts founders and was supposed to be an incredibly smart woman.

"If you can answer this riddle, glory will be yours." The portrait told Scorpius who was eagerly awaiting the next riddle. "It is greater than God and more evil than the devil. The poor have it, the rich need it and if you eat it you'll die. What is it?"

Scorpius smirked as the woman in the portrait recited the riddle, he had heard it before and knew the answer immediately.

"Nothing. Nothing is greater than god, nothing is more evil than the devil. The poor have nothing, the rich need nothing and if you eat nothing you will die." Scorpius responded with confidence.

The woman in the portrait nodded her head, impressed by his speedy answer. She then swung open revealing a small room with a small circular table standing in the centre of the room. On the table stood The Triwizard Cup.

Scorpius entered the room and headed towards the cup. He had done it, he had won The Triwizard Tournament.


	11. The Winner

Outside the castle, tensions were mounting as the families of the champions awaited the winner.

Once the three champions were all inside the castle, The Weasley's turned their attention back to James and the announcement he had made before the start of the task. Both Ginny and Harry let their son know that they were disappointed by his decision. James however didn't care, he told his family that they either accept Diana or lose him. Once James had delivered the ultimatum to his family, he turned and left the stand but not before thanking Hermione.

"Why did James thank you?" Harry turned to ask Hermione as his son left the stand.

"We talked during the second task. I encouraged him to follow his heart." Hermione shrugged.

"You encouraged my grandson to return to that girl." Molly said, appalled by what Hermione had done. "Her entire family fought for you know who in the war." Molly couldn't help but stare at the Malfoy's when she mentioned the war.

"That was twenty years ago. People change." Hermione sighed. She was disappointed that the family she had once spent so much time with were so caught up in the past and were unable to believe people could change.

"Not people like those. Once a Death Eater always a Death Eater." Molly snapped. By this point no one was sure if she was still referring to Diana's family or the Malfoy's who were on the receiving end of her death stares.

Hermione decided it wasn't worth arguing with the witch, she had clearly made up her mind and would not be reasoned with. Hermione decided that Molly was likely the reason behind the entire family's lack of forgiveness towards people who had tried to change for the better since the war. Hermione looked at her family out of the corner of her eye to make sure they weren't going to respond to Molly's unfair accusations. Luckily no one seemed bothered by the woman's ranting. Lucius and Narcissa were talking together quietly while Lyra and Draco were sitting with their heads together as Lyra chatted away to her father.

While Hermione was slyly watching her family, she could hear the Weasley's discussing James and what to do about him. Hermione hoped the close-knit family would be able to accept James and his choice of partner.

When no one had returned from the castle after nearly an hour, Hermione was starting to worry about her son and his safety. Hermione felt a movement to her left and turned to find that Draco had subtly moved himself closer to her chair.

"He'll be fine." Draco said, trying to reassure his wife.

"I know, it's just been a long time." By this point Hermione was unconcerned if everyone knew about her and Draco as the tournament was nearly over.

"Well it's hardly going to be a quick job. It is supposed to be a test of skill and character." Draco said to Hermione who nodded and settled back into her seat trying to relax slightly.

Harry and The Weasley's were too busy talking amongst themselves to notice that Hermione and Draco were sitting talking quietly. They even failed to notice when Hermione slipped her hand into Draco's as the couple waited for their son's return.

A shout from the crowd drew everyone's attention. On the grass in front of the castle a shimmering light had appeared and there was a silhouette inside the bright light. Everyone waited with baited breath for the light to clear and the identity of the champion to be revealed. As the light cleared, Hermione was thrilled to see her son standing with the cup and smirking up at the stand they were sitting in.

As the crowds started to cheer on Scorpius' victory, Hermione looked around the stand. Narcissa and Lyra were clapping and cheering while Lucius and Draco wore identical smug smirks aimed at the Weasley family who were standing gobsmacked by the result.

As Hermione turned her attention back to her son, Albus and Novak appeared beside him. Novak politely congratulated her son before turning and leaving while Albus looked thrilled with his friends victory and the two boys stood laughing and talking.

Padma stood up and called the crowd to order. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner of The Triwizard Tournament is Scorpius Malfoy. The presentation ceremony will take place in half an hour in the Great Hall."

The crowd once again went wild as Scorpius held the cup up and acknowledged the support he had received from the students.

"Can we go and see Scorp?" Hermione heard her daughter ask Narcissa. Narcissa looked at Hermione for permission and when she gave it the Malfoy family started to head towards Scorpius to congratulate him.

As Hermione followed her family she noticed the Weasley clan were also heading in the same direction, obviously going to see Albus. When they arrived to where Albus and Scorpius were still standing, Lyra ran to her brother and gave him a hug. Scorpius immediately hugged Lyra back before turning to the rest of his family. Narcissa gave her grandson a large hug while Lucius patted the boy on the back, smirking the entire time. Scorpius was so thrilled with winning he even allowed Draco to give him a quick hug, before he pulled back and smiled broadly at his family.

"Scorp." A girl's voice distracted the group before Hermione had a chance to go and congratulate her son.

A flash or red hair flew through the assembled group and Lily launched herself into Scorpius arms. Totally unconcerned by the presence of their families, Scorpius pulled Lily to him and gave her a gentle kiss. Harry and the Weasley's looked totally appalled by what they were witnessing while Lucius and Draco were chuckling quietly at the redheaded family's obvious discomfort.

Once he had finished embracing his girlfriend, Scorpius turned to look at Hermione. "Aren't you going to congratulate me?"

Hermione smiled broadly and walked over to Scorpius and wrapped him in a hug. "Congratulations, Honey. You were great."

Harry and the Weasley's watched in shock as Hermione hugged Scorpius, appearing far too friendly with her student.

"Thanks, Mum." Scorpius said with a grin as the pair separated.

"MUM!" Ron yelled at the top of his voice, unable to believe what he was hearing.

"Yes, Scorp's my son." Hermione said turning to face the shocked group of redheads.

"But, he's a… a Malfoy." Ron stuttered.

"Yes. As am I." Hermione said calmly.

"But you use the name Granger. I've heard people call you that." Ginny said, unable to understand what was happening.

"I only use the name Granger for professional purposes." Hermione explained. "Other than that I use the name Malfoy."

"But that means that you… him…" Ron continued to stutter pointing back and forth between Hermione and Draco.

"Are married." Draco finished for Ron as he moved to stand beside Hermione, wrapping his arm protectively around her waist.

"You lied to me." Harry said sounding hurt.

As he looked at the Malfoy family standing in front of him Harry realised why the young girl with them looked so familiar. She was clearly Hermione's daughter and Harry was shocked he hadn't made the connection earlier as she looked remarkably like her mother.

"I haven't." Hermione shook her head. "The day we arrived, I told you I was married and only used my maiden name professionally. You never once asked about my husband or my family."

"So you would have told me if I'd asked? Why not just tell me anyway, why keep it a secret?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I would have told you if you'd bothered to ask me any questions about my life." Hermione said. "And we didn't tell anyone because we didn't want anyone to question Scorpius' participation in the tournament."

Harry nodded slowly, understanding Hermione's logic. It had been hard for Albus during the tournament, and sometimes Harry wondered if it would have been easier for his son if he hadn't been headmaster.

"You said you didn't want to get married and have children." Ron said angrily, once Hermione and Harry had finished talking.

"I never said that Ron." Hermione sighed, wishing her ex hadn't been present today. "I said I wasn't ready at the time."

"But less than five years later, you went and got yourself pregnant by the Ferret. So much for not being ready." Ron scoffed. "I would have waited five years. Hell, I would have waited for as long as you wanted."

"I'm sorry, Ron." Hermione said, feeling bad for her ex. "I never planned it. Draco and I just fell in love."

Ron looked at Hermione with a mixture of anger and hurt etched on his features. Shaking his head he turned and walked away from Hermione.

"Do you have any idea how long he waited for you to return?" Molly stormed up to Hermione and stood in front of her, glaring angrily at her and Draco. "And all the time you were with him."

"Ron knew I wasn't coming back. I made it clear to him that our relationship wouldn't work." Hermione said, refusing to let Ron's mother blame her for his stupid actions. "It's not my fault he failed to move on."

"You know what, you fit in with them perfectly." Molly said, looking at Hermione scathingly. "You cold hearted bitch."

Molly turned and stormed off, Arthur trailing along behind her. The rest of the Weasley's looked torn as to what to do and think about the situation. Not sure of what to say to Hermione they followed their parents. Within a couple of minutes the only people present apart from the Malfoy's were Harry, Ginny, Albus and Lily.

"Are you okay?" Draco asked his wife who was standing staring at where Molly had been a few minutes earlier.

"Yes, I'm fine." Hermione said, refocusing on her family.

"Good. The woman had no right to speak to you like that." Narcissa said. "Despicable behaviour."

Ginny glared at the elder woman as she expressed her disgust with Molly's behaviour but she didn't say anything, after all her mother had just behaved pretty badly.

"I need to go and make sure everything is in place for the presentation ceremony." Harry said. He was still trying to come to terms with Hermione's life and needed time to think. "Congratulations, Scorpius." He nodded to the blond boy and gestured to Ginny for the pair of them to leave.

"Mum." Albus said stopping Ginny in her tracks. "Will you still be coming to the presentation ceremony?" Even though he hadn't won each champion would be receiving a medal for their participation and Albus wanted his family present.

"Yes, I'll go and make sure everyone else returns as well." Ginny said before her and Harry walked off talking quietly together.

Once their parents and family had departed Lily and Albus also left, promising to see Scorpius at the presentation. Once left alone the Malfoy family congratulated Scorpius again and he began to tell his family how he had won the tournament.

After a while the family started to head towards the school and the Great Hall for the presentation. Scorpius and Lyra were walking slightly ahead as Scorpius continued to regale his sister with tales of the three tasks he had partaken in. The four adults were walking slightly behind the two children, Draco and his parents checking that Hermione was okay after the confrontation with the Weasley family. Reassuring her family she was fine, Hermione suggested they take their seats in the hall.

When they entered the hall they found it was rapidly filling up, heading to the front of the room where the seats reserved for the families of the three champions were they found the entire Weasley family had all returned and were settling into their seats. Hermione noticed the dirty looks some of the redheads were throwing her way, as did Draco who tightened his grip on Hermione's waist, pulling her closer into his body.

Hermione settled her family in their seats, ignoring the looks the Weasley family were aiming in their direction, before taking Scorpius up to the front or the room where Padma was organising the presentation. Albus and Harry were also standing with Padma and Hermione was slightly upset when Harry deliberately ignored her.

"You two can go and sit with your families if you want, I've got everything under control." Padma said to Harry and Hermione.

"Thank you, Padma." Hermione smiled at the witch while Harry nodded and walked away.

Harry walked back to his seat next to Ginny and watched as Hermione spoke to Scorpius one final time before returning to her own seat in between Lyra and Draco. Harry grimaced when Draco immediately put his arm around Hermione and whispered something in her ear that made her smile widely.

"I can't believe we didn't notice anything at The Yule Ball." Ginny whispered to her husband, following his line of vision.

"I know." Harry sighed, wondering how he had missed the signs. Hermione had been quite content to dance with Draco for quite a while and the pair of them had looked extremely comfortable in each other's arms.

While Harry and Ginny were busy gossiping about her, Hermione was steadfastly ignoring her former friends who were still shooting her entire family evil looks across the room. Hermione instead chose to talk with Lyra, finding out how the young girl was liking school.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, can we have silence please." Padma said, stepping onto the small stage that had been erected at the front of the Great Hall. "The Triwizard Tournament has been a great success, the three champions have all showed great ability and Hogwarts has been a wonderful host for the event."

Cheers erupted from the Hogwarts students when Padma praised their school. Padma smiled slightly at the cheering and waited until it was silent once more to continue with her speech.

"I would like to ask the two runner's up to come up on stage and receive their medals. I think we can all agree that both students showed great magical ability." Padma said, making sure the efforts of Novak and Albus were recognised. "Ladies and Gentlemen, please give a round of applause to Novak Kostas and Albus Potter."

As Albus and Novak collected their medals the entire Hall applauded their efforts. Hermione was pleased to notice that her entire family were clapping along with the rest of the hall. Both Draco and Narcissa had said how impressed they had been with Albus' performance in the first task and her whole family approved of the fact he hadn't judged Scorpius by his family's history.

"Now Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner of The Triwizard Tournament, Scorpius Malfoy."

At Padma's announcement The Great Hall burst into more cheers and applause. Hermione watched proudly as Scorpius was officially handed the cup and declared the winner. As her family were celebrating, Hermione snuck a look at the Weasley's and was disappointed that a few of them were not being courteous enough to applaud and show Scorpius the respect he deserved. Molly, Arthur and Ron were all sitting there unmoving their faces red with anger, the rest of the family seemed to have more manners and were politely clapping. Hermione noticed that Lily and James were cheering loudly along with Albus who was still standing on the side of the stage.

Once everything had calmed down, Padma announced that The Triwizard Tournament was concluded and that there would be a champions feast that night before the students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons returned home the following day.

Scorpius immediately rushed over to his family once the ceremony was over. Hermione could feel the Weasley's watching her family as they celebrated with Scorpius. Getting annoyed with the blatant staring and downright rudeness, Lucius turned to the assembled family.

"Is there something we can help you with?" Lucius said in disdain. "You seem to keep watching us."

Molly snorted in disgust and turned to her family. "Come one, it's time to go. We've had more than our fill of Death Eater Scum."

Molly then turned and swept out of the hall her family following but not before Ron turned to Hermione and called her a traitorous bitch. Hermione had to hold onto Draco to stop her husband hexing Ron as he headed away from them.

"Don't, Draco. He's not worth it." Hermione said softly. Draco reluctantly nodded and wrapped his arm around Hermione's waist.

After the Weasley's had made their departure James also left with Diana, but not before making Hermione promise to keep in touch with him. Ginny and Harry looked unimpressed with their eldest son and left shortly after he did, Harry muttering about organising the champions feast.

Once Harry and Ginny had left, Lucius turned to the group. "I think it's time we left Scorp to celebrate with his friends."

"Thanks." Scorpius beamed at his family and after saying goodbye to his family he left with Albus and Lily to show off his trophy.

"We'll be off too." Narcissa said, holding onto Lucius' arm. "Lyra are you going to come with us?" She asked her granddaughter, she knew Draco had planned to spend the rest of the afternoon and knowing her son and daughter-in-law, Narcissa suspected they would rather be left alone.

"Yes. We can see if Willow's had her puppies." Willow was Lucius and Narcissa's Labrador that was due to give birth any day.

"I'll see you tomorrow, sweetheart." Hermione told her daughter, as she gave her a quick kiss and a hug before she left with her grandparents.

"Mum, if Willow has her puppies before me and dad go home tomorrow can we have one?" Lyra asked, as Narcissa held onto her hand.

"The puppies have to stay with Willow for a while but we'll see when they're old enough to leave her." Hermione told her daughter. She knew that they would end up with a puppy as Draco wouldn't be able to resist giving Lyra exactly what she wanted.

Hermione and Draco walked with Lucius, Narcissa and Lyra to the main door and stood outside in the sunshine watching as their daughter headed home with her grandparents.

"What do you want to do now?" Draco turned and asked his wife as his parents and Lyra headed to the school gates so they could apparate home.

"I have to attend the feast later and pack for tomorrow." Hermione sighed. She was looking forward to going home the following day. "But for now I'll settle for spending the afternoon with my gorgeous husband."

Hermione smiled at Draco who grinned back and pulled Hermione into his arms. Hermione pulled Draco into a searing kiss, not caring for one minute that they were in public and there were students milling around the place. She was very much in love with her husband and didn't care who witnessed their affection for each other.

* * *

**A/N - Thank you everyone for the Reviews, Follows and Favourites. There is one more chapter and the epilogue to come so the story will be completed in a couple of days.**


	12. Feasts and Farewells

Hermione finished getting dressed and sank down onto the sofa. He bags were all neatly packed for returning home in the morning, all she had to do now was attend the champions feast. Summoning the courage to attend the feast was proving harder than Hermione imagined, as the hours wore on she was becoming increasingly worried about facing Harry.

Glancing at the clock, Hermione realised the feast started in ten minutes and if she didn't leave soon she would be late. She had already heard her students leave for The Great Hall about ten minutes ago. Before she had gotten off the sofa, there was a knock on the door surprising Hermione.

Opening the door, Hermione was shocked to see her son standing there. "I thought you'd left for the feast." She said to Scorpius.

"No, the others have. I wanted to see you first." Scorpius said, entering the room and sitting down.

"Why? You'll see me at the feast." Hermione said, sitting down next to Scorpius.

"But I'll not be able to talk to you." Scorpius explained. "I wanted to see if you were alright after this afternoon."

"I'm fine, honey." Hermione said softly. "I always knew there was potential for the Weasley's to react badly."

"But it must hurt to have your old friends treat you so badly." Scorpius said. While he thought that Albus and especially Lily were great, Scorpius was distinctly unimpressed with the rest of their family.

"It's okay. I haven't seen any of them in so long, their opinion really isn't important." Hermione said.

As she spoke Hermione realised that what she was telling Scorpius was true and she didn't really care what people thought. She loved Draco and if people couldn't accept that than it was their problem not hers. Feeling much braver Hermione decided it was time to go to the feast and face Harry and if he didn't approve of her life then it didn't matter, she was happy and that was all that mattered.

"Let's go and celebrate your win." Hermione said standing up but noticing that Scorpius still looked pre-occupied. "Unless there's anything else."

"Actually there is." Scorpius said, also standing up. "I would appreciate it if you and dad didn't go around kissing in public. It's embarrassing and disgusting."

"You kissed Lily in public, was that not embarrassing and disgusting." Hermione laughed.

"That's different. Me and Lily are young." Scorpius said, blushing slightly as he remembered kissing Lily in public.

"Me and your dad are hardly ancient. Wait until you're our age, you won't think kissing is disgusting then." Hermione said, shaking her head at her son.

"Maybe not, but I'll try not to do it in public and embarrass my children." Scorpius said pointedly.

Hermione laughed and started to walk to the door. "Fine, we'll try to control ourselves in public."

"If only." Scorpius muttered following Hermione out of the door. He was well aware of the fact that he wouldn't be able to stop his parents showing affection for each other, they had been doing it far too long to change them now. But at least it proved his parents genuinely loved each other and were happy together.

Hermione and Scorpius walked down to the feast together, when they came to The Great Hall the pair separated and headed to their respective tables. Hermione headed to the top table where all the Professors were sitting while Scorpius headed to the Gryffindor table and to a seat in between Albus and Lily.

When Hermione arrived at the table, she was disappointed to notice Harry still wouldn't look at her. Instead he was engaged in conversation with Professor Polanski and didn't even glance at her as she sat down next to him. Hermione had barely taken her seat when Harry stood up to address the students before the start of the feast.

"Before I begin I would just like to thank the entire school for behaving so well throughout the Tournament." This was met by small giggles in some quarters as the only trouble in the tournament had actually came from Harry's family. Harry resolutely ignored the giggling and carried on talking.

"Tonight is the champions dinner, to celebrate the winner of The Triwizard Tournament. All three champions performed admirably and there was a great deal of magical ability on show by all, but there can only be one winner. Scorpius Malfoy." Harry paused as the Great Hall erupted in cheers for the blond boy who had become extremely popular during his short stay at Hogwarts. "Scorpius showed real skill and dedication to prevail and I think we can all agree he was a worthy winner. Now I think it's time we ate."

As Harry sat back down, the food appeared on the tables and noise erupted around the room as people began laughing and talking as they ate. Hermione wanted to thank Harry for the kind words he had said about Scorpius but the moment her former friend sat down he turned back to Professor Polanski. Sighing Hermione filled her goblet with wine and put a couple of things on her plate to eat.

"You must be very proud." Neville said from the other side of her.

Hermione turned and smiled at her former housemate, pleased he was being nice to her. "I am."

"He's a nice kid." Neville said, smiling at Hermione.

"Thanks. You say that like you were expecting a devil. Although with his surname you probably were." Hermione said, laughing as Neville got all panicked and flustered. "Relax Neville, I was joking. He's been on his best behaviour these last few months, sometimes he is a devil."

"I really didn't think anything of the sort. I would never judge him because of who is father is." Neville said sincerely. "Besides, Malfoy seems to have changed. He obviously loves you."

"Thank you Neville." Hermione replied, genuinely touched by the sentiments he had expressed. "I wish more people thought like you."

"Anyone who judges Scorpius on his name, without taking the time to find out who he really is, isn't worth bothering with." Neville said, wisely.

"When did you become so wise?" Hermione asked, laughing lightly.

"I once had a very clever friend called Hermione, she taught me a lot." Neville said.

Hermione blushed and looked down at her plate. Laughing at Hermione's awkwardness, Neville changed the subject and the two chatted merrily until the end of the feast.

When the feast was over and Harry had dismissed the students, Hermione went to leave but was stopped by a hand on her arm. Turning round she saw Harry standing holding onto her.

"Can we maybe take a walk." Harry asked. Hermione nodded and the pair left the Great Hall together.

Harry led Hermione down to the edge of the Black Lake where he sat on a large boulder and gestured for Hermione to join him.

"I understand why you didn't say anything. I wish I could have done something similar for Albus." Harry said, breaking the awkward silence that had descended between the pair.

"I never meant to deceive you Harry. Scorp entering the tournament was the only reason we kept quiet." Hermione said.

"How did it happen? You and Malfoy, it's quite unexpected." Harry said, still unable to see what his former friend could see in the blond.

"Maybe, but it works." Hermione said, she then proceeded to tell Harry about running into Narcissa and the events that led up to her relationship with Draco.

"Did you ever think about getting in touch?" Harry asked, once Hermione had finished her story.

"No." Hermione replied bluntly. "When I left I never had any intention of returning. But you knew that Harry."

"I know." Harry sighed. "I guess I've always hoped that someday you'd return home."

"France is my home, It has been for twenty years." Hermione said, gently. "Maybe we can keep in touch now?" Hermione suggested hopefully.

"I'm not sure." Harry said, looking uncomfortable. "I suppose it depends what happens with the family."

"It's okay, Harry. I understand." Hermione said. One of her reasons for not keeping in touch with Harry was so he wouldn't have to choose between her and his family, and she wasn't going to put him in that position now.

"I'm really happy for you. You're obviously happy and love Malfoy." Harry said, sighing. "In an ideal world, Scorpius' parentage shouldn't be a problem but with Molly it will be."

"Why? What's changed?" Hermione asked. While she had seen glimpses of Molly's harsh judgement towards people, like when Molly believed the lies Rita Skeeter was spreading about Hermione in fourth year and was pretty nasty towards her, it had never been as open as it was now.

"I don't think she's ever recovered from the war and losing Fred." Harry said, trying but finding it hard to defend his mother-in-law. "Maybe she would have coped better if she hadn't lost one of her own children. I don't think she can separate anyone from the dark side with what happened to Fred."

"So the whole family just go along with what she says." Hermione sighed sadly.

"Yes." Harry nodded, not sure how to explain. "She's made her mind up about anyone involved with the other side of the war, so for an easy life we don't argue with her. We don't want to upset her further."

"Is Scorpius' parentage a problem for you?" Hermione asked after digesting what Harry had said about Molly. She had witnessed herself that Harry was just as against Scorpius as the rest of his family, but she wanted to see if he would admit it now he knew about her relationship to Scorpius.

"I wish I could say it didn't matter. But every time I see him, I see Malfoy." Harry sighed. "I know it makes me as bad as Molly, but I can't help it."

"I should go. I've got to make sure the students are packed for tomorrow." Hermione said, standing up. She now knew where Harry stood and knew they could never regain their friendship.

"Right. I'll see you tomorrow then." Harry said, watching as Hermione walked back to the castle.

* * *

The next morning was hectic at Hogwarts with the two visiting schools ready to depart. Straight after breakfast, Professor Polanski and his students boarded their ship and disappeared into the Black Lake. The Beauxbatons students weren't leaving until mid-morning, so that they could all say goodbye to their new found friends.

Once Harry had discovered that Hermione was head of Beauxbatons, he wasn't surprised to discover that the contingent from the French school hadn't arrived in the flying carriage. Harry knew Hermione hated flying of any sort and clearly that hadn't changed, despite the many things about her that had. Instead of flying the group from Beauxbatons had flooed into the school and that was how they were leaving.

Harry had arranged to reconnect the fire in the room that Hermione had been staying in back to the floo network for easiness. Harry had personally came to see Hermione and her students home, along with Albus and Lily who had begged Harry to let them see Scorpius one final time. Harry had relented, half hoping that once the blond boy went back to France they would never see him again. Harry was still struggling with the fact that the boy was Hermione's son, every time he saw him all he could see was his father. Harry wanted to see Hermione in him, maybe then he could accept his friendship with his children, but so far he had failed to see any signs of Hermione in her son.

One by one Hermione sent her students through the floo network until only her and Scorpius remained. Albus had said goodbye to Imogen moments before and was now saying goodbye to the boy who had quickly become his best friend.

"Don't forget to write." Albus said. He was sad that Scorpius was going home, it only felt like yesterday that they had met.

"I won't. Maybe you could come and visit over summer." Scorpius said with a grin.

Harry visibly winced at Scorpius' offer, causing Hermione to lose any miniscule hope she had of staying in touch with her former friend.

After saying goodbye to his friend, Scorpius turned to Lily who was sniffing quietly trying hard not to cry. Harry turned away as Scorpius gently wrapped his arms around his daughter.

"I'll write all the time." Scorpius said softly to Lily, trying to ignore the fact they had an audience. "And I'll be back before you know it."

"Make sure you are." Lily whispered. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you, too." Scorpius replied, gently kissing Lily.

Stepping away from his girlfriend, Scorpius picked up his bag and headed to the fireplace. Grabbing a handful of floo powder he took one final look at Lily and Albus before heading into the fire and flooing back to Beauxbatons.

"I guess this is goodbye, again." Hermione said to Harry.

"I guess it is." Harry said. Having to say goodbye again was making Harry realise how much he had missed having Hermione in his life. He hoped that one day he could get over who she had married and re-form a friendship with her. "Goodbye, Hermione."

"Bye Harry." Hermione smiled, picked up her bag and headed into the fire. "Beauxbatons Academy of Magic." She called, disappearing into the green flames.

Harry looked at the fireplace where Hermione had vanished from for several minutes before turning to his two children.

"Come on, let's get back to normal." Harry said, ushering them out of the room.

Little did he realise that their lives would never go back to how they had been before. The Triwizard Tournament and more importantly The Malfoy family had changed their lives forever.

* * *

**A/N - I will be posting the epilogue today as well so I can get this story finished with. **

**I am sorry if people didn't like the Weasley's attitude but that's the great thing with writing these stories, you can make them react differently in different stories. For this story I wanted them to have a bad reaction (Which I have hopefully explained a bit in this chapter) but in most of my stories they are actually quite supportive.**

**I hope the majority of people enjoyed the story and I would like to thank everyone for the great support I have received.**


	13. Epilogue

**Lily and Scorpius.**

Scorpius kept his word and wrote to Lily several times a week over the course of his last year at school. Once he had finished school, he moved into Malfoy Manor with his grandparents and started work at the London branch of Draco's business. During Lily's last year at Hogwarts the pair continued to write to each other and met up in Hogsmeade on several occasions.

Once Lily had graduated the pair bought a flat in London and moved in together. Scorpius continued to work for Draco in the company he would one day inherit while Lily got a job working at The Daily Prophet, where she went on to have a very successful career in journalism.

A year after Lily's graduation, Scorpius proposed and the young couple got engaged. While Scorpius' family was thrilled and welcomed Lily into the family with open arms, Lily's family were a different story. Harry and Ginny had accepted her involvement with Scorpius but weren't exactly welcoming to the blond. Luckily both Albus and James approved of Scorpius and his relationship with their sister.

Scorpius and Lily had hoped their wedding would bring the two families together, but despite the Malfoy's best efforts the best that could be achieved was frosty acceptance. As a result the couple spent more time with Scorpius' family and only had contact with Lily's on special occasions.

**Albus.**

Albus and Scorpius remained best friends, even after Scorpius had returned to France. While Harry and Ginny had refused to let Albus visit Scorpius in France over the summer, the pair still kept in contact. The summer after the pair finished school, they spent a month travelling before they both returned to England and started work.

During his last year of school Albus had been offered a contract with a professional Quidditch team. Taking them up on the offer he soon became The Tutshill Tornadoes star seeker. He later went on to play for England in the Quidditch World Cup.

While Scorpius' relationship with Lily blossomed so did his friendship with Albus. The two spent plenty of time together and often spent the weekends doing something together. Albus was best man at Scorpius wedding to Lily while Scorpius did the same at Albus' wedding a few years later.

Albus' brief relationship with Imogen ended when she returned to France at the end of the Triwizard Tournament. The short romance with the French girl had given Albus much more confidence with girls and he soon had girls flocking around him. For a while Albus was content to play the field and date without getting serious, until he met his future wife Helena. Helena was a healer who treated him for a broken arm after one of his Quidditch matches. Albus was immediately taken by the pretty witch and soon convinced her to go out with him, they got married two years later.

**James and Diana.**

After James' ultimatum to his family they realised they had little choice but to accept his relationship. While they begrudgingly accepted their relationship, it was clear to James that they still didn't approve of Diana. A few months after getting engaged the couple eloped and married in secret, the only person they informed was Hermione, who along with Draco was a witness to their marriage.

When the couple returned from their honeymoon, James gave his family one final chance to welcome Diana into their family. When the response from his family was lukewarm, the couple decided to move to France. James transferred to the French ministry to continue with his work as an Auror while Diana started training to be a teacher at Beauxbatons.

**Ron.**

After discovering that Hermione had gotten married and had children only a few years after leaving him, Ron became withdrawn and depressed. He spent most of his time dwelling on the past and wondering what he could have done to make Hermione stay with him.

Ron's reaction to Hermione's life caused him major problems with his wife. Lavender had always been convinced that she was second best and that Ron had only married her because he couldn't have Hermione. In the aftermath of the Tournament Lavender left Ron. The couple briefly separated before reconciling for the sake of their young children, Rose and Hugo.

**The Weasley's.**

Molly was the driving force behind the family's reluctance to accept James and Lily's partners. She had never quite recovered from the events of the war and the terrible tragedy of losing Fred. Despite many people telling her that Scorpius and Diana weren't like what their parents had been when they were younger, she refused to listen to reason. As a result neither Scorpius or Diana felt welcome into the Weasley part of the family.

Slowly the other members of the family came around to Diana and Scorpius being a part of their lives. Eventually the only difficult members of the family were Molly and Ron, Molly refused to forget the past while Ron wanted nothing to do with the Malfoy's.

**Narcissa and Lucius.**

Both Narcissa and Lucius welcomed Lily into the family, they liked her bravery and the fact she wasn't intimidated by them and their notorious reputation. Lucius also liked the fact that Scorpius' presence in Lily's life annoyed the redheaded family that he had always despised.

On the handful of occasions that the two families were forced to interact, Lucius often sat smirking at the discomfort of the other family while Narcissa made sure her family didn't do anything to show themselves up or embarrass her.

**Harry and Ginny.**

Ginny and a reluctant Harry had initially fought to get Scorpius out of their children's lives but eventually realised they were fighting a losing battle. With the acceptance of Scorpius as a part of Lily's life, they tried to come to terms with Hermione's relationship with Draco. Unfortunately Molly's attitude and old memories made it hard for the couple to work past their hatred of the blond man. While Harry was happy that Hermione was happy, he struggled to move past the fact she had married the boy who had tormented them in school.

An amicable acceptance was the best the couple could manage until the birth of Lily and Scorpius' first child. Realising that they now shared a blood family member with Malfoy's, the couple put aside their petty bitterness and tried to make amends with Hermione and Draco. The two couples tried their best to get along for their children's sakes, and succeeded on the most part. Any chance of a real friendship had disappeared when the Potter's had objected to Scorpius being a part of Lily's life combined with their failure to judge him on his own merits rather than old memories of Draco.

Harry continued on as headmaster of Hogwarts for many years, only retiring when he got sick of Ginny nagging him to spend more time with her.

**Draco and Hermione.**

Draco and Hermione had been immediately supportive of Scorpius' relationship with Lily and had welcomed the girl into their family. Hermione had been deeply hurt when Harry and Ginny had still tried to stop Lily and Albus from having anything to do with Scorpius, even after finding out she was his mother. It was something their friendship could never recover from and even though the Potter's tried to make amends in later years, it was never quite the same between them.

Hermione also developed a friendship with James, after their talk during the second task he had felt he could talk to Hermione and she would listen and give her honest opinion. Hermione had been touched when James and Diana had confided in her about their wedding, her and Draco were thrilled to be witnesses for them. Hermione had also been supportive when the couple moved to France, and she had organised for Diana to train at Beauxbatons.

After Lyra had graduated from school, Draco had persuaded Hermione to retire very early so they could spend more time together. Hermione agreed and left her job while Draco signed the company over to Scorpius so he could be with his wife full time.

The couple spent their time travelling the world, visiting all the places they wanted to visit. As a hobby Hermione took up writing and had a couple of books published but she was content to spend the majority of time with the man she loved and the wonderful family they had created together.


End file.
